NOISE IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20241, 29 April 1929, Page 14

NOISE IN AUCKLAND.

Sir, —Unnecessary noise is dearly on. the increase in Auckland, duo partly to tlie natural growth of road traffic, but -decidedly due to preventable causes. Tho chief sources of excessive noise are (1) motorcyclists; (2) motor-lorries: (3) trams.: The noise caused by motor-cars generally is not excessive, aud can be regarded as a necessary evil. The noise caused by motor traffic past the hospital gates has a direct effect on the patients, especially in the Wallace wards. Surely Park Road could be closed from 8 p.m. and the traffic diverted via Park Avenue and Carlton Gore Road, and thus give tho poor nerve-wracked patients in the Wallace wards a chance to sle?p. Another unaccountable failure is in" not dealing stringently with the callously selfish motorcyclists (not always boys) "who" roar through the streets and especi- ' ally late at night; ■ The. contin* ual drain on the .. nerves made upon residents on all the main thoroughfares is something surely , that merits tho earnest attention of our traffic department, and a real blow could be struck, if a few dozen motor-cyclists were picked out each day. There is a need for the formation of* a peoples' league of health as existing in other parts of the world. One such league'recommended to its civic governing body the following desirable reforms: (1) The establishment of zones-of silence around hospitals; (2) the prevention of the sale and use of motor-cycles without efficient silencers; (3) the limitation of speed and weight carried by motorlorries ; (4) the enforcement of the .use of pneumatic tyres on lorries. These aro exactly what are required in Auckland, and the new City Council would receivo the benedictions of the masses by adopting a vigorous policy of noise suppression. Anti-noise.