STREET LIGHTING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 197, 19 July 1935, Page 16

STREET LIGHTING.

SOME EARLY' OBJECTIONS. Mr D. J. Nolan, commercial manager of the electricity department of the Sydney City Council, in a talk on “Electrical Development” to members of the Commonwealth Accountants’ Students’ Society, recalled the curious objections raised to the lightmg of public highways 70 years ago. The objections were grouped under five heads: (1) Theological—that the proposed lighting was an attempt to interfere with the Divine plan of the world, which it was preordained should be dark at night time. (2) Medical —people would remain out of doors and endanger their health. (3) Moral —fear of darkness would vanish and drunkenness and depravity would increase. (4) Police—lioities would be thieves emboldened. (5) Public—if the streets were illuminated every night it would rob festive occasions of their charm. There was a certain familiaritv about the form of these objections, commented Air Nolan. Any new idea to-day, he said, was liable' to be met by objections under one or more of those heads.