THE DUST NUISANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12480, 26 January 1904, Page 4

THE DUST NUISANCE.

The dust nuisance has returned with the season. Always more or less existent, it rose yesterday to plague proportions, and will continue at that as long as dry and windy weather continues, unless, some prompt municipal steps are taken ior its abatement. And of such steps there are no signs. Nothing tangible has come of the negotiations between the Electric Tramways Company and the local bodies, and by the time they have tested the composition now being talked of the summer will be over and the dust have done its worst. A great deal is said of the 'dust nuisance, but so little is done to allay it that it does not seem credible that people realise its effects. In addition to the grievous discomfort, annoyance, and inconvenience which it occasions there is its depressing influence upon the general health of the community and the certainty that it assists greatly in the spread of disease. And apart altogether from its effects upon the person is the destruction which it visits upon what are really our costliest personal possessions. The furniture and furnishings of private houses, with the dresses and clothing of individuals, as well as the valuable stock of tradespeople, alike suffer damage and depreciation by the clouds of dust which so little attempt is made to allay. Nor is there any doubt that trade is diverted by the nuisance, and property depreciated, that even the total trade of the city suffers by intending visitors from the country refusing to endure our dust. In every city of the world, during the dry months, dust is a nuisance and a burden. But usually some more decided attempt is made to keep it down, than we see here in Auckland. The local bodies, including the City Council, should not sit helplessly before this pernicious and costly nuisance. Whether by water or oil, horse carts or traction carts, they should take steps to suppress it in those main thoroughfares of the city and suburbs from which it chiefly rises, and from which it spreads to every side street.