NOISES AT NIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21457, 3 April 1933, Page 11

NOISES AT NIGHT

MOTOR-CYCLE LARRIKINS MENACE TO COMMUNITY UNWARRANTED NUISANCE A form of larrikinism from which Aucklanders have suffered long enough is that which is responsible for the nerve-shattering din of motorcycles that roar through the streets at night and keep people awake. A noise like a machine-gun, when ic comes from a motor-cycle, is. no evidence of mechanical efficiency. Neither is it an essential to speed. Those cyclists who, by their conduct, show that they think it is, not only betray a selfish disregard for the rights of the 1 est of the community, but they delude themselves. On the Great South Road, Remuera Road, New North Road —on all the highways that provide a good speeding surface—this nocturnal uproar is heard from one week's end to another. Neither are the side streets entirely free from it. However unpleasant this kind of racket may be in the daytime, at night it becomes a sheer menace to the health and comfort of citizens. It is a menace, moreover, which has no shadow of justification for its existence. Cause of Trouble The cause of it is not far to geek. It :is to, be found mainly among a type of young nit-wit, to borrow an aptly coined term, who, lacking enough personality even to convince himself that he has been born, must constantly reassure his senses by creating a hubbub. There is another type of offender, no higher in the scale of intelligence than the last-named. In this case a faintly flickering personality is kept alive only by objectional attempts to impress it upon others. This is the true larrikin spirit. It cannot be disguised even though it seek expression in the roar of an open exhaust. . It is evident that the fault lies at the door of private motor-cycle owners, for trade machines do not use tho road at night. Nevertheless, it would be far from just to say that every owner of a motor-cycle was an offender. Those who understand the pro.per use of a machine know that an open exhaust as a means of increasing speed can be discounted. Moreover, tho increasing efficiency of modern cycles renders them more and more capable of running with a minimum of noise. Offence Under Regulations Complaints of noisy motor-cycles are 110 new thing. They have been made ever since motor-cycles appeared on the roads. Hospital patients, among others, have very serious cause for complaint, and the average resident also has the strongest right to demand that the hours which he spends in his home shall not be robbed of their peacefulness by an obnoxious public nuisance. Responsible riders of motorcycles deplore as much as anybody the fact that the nuisance exists, and members of motor-cycle clubs have done much, by way of precept and praotice, to abate it. It is an unpleasant truth, however, that there are still far too many selfish and thoughtless riders on the roads. Even if it should be an idle effort to hope that the day will come when riders of noisy motor-cycles will be prohibited from riding again, it re-; mains a fact that, under the motor regulations, it is an offence to create an undue noise. It is an offence which the public has a clear title to demand shall bo vigorously brought to account and punished with all the rigour that the law allows.