NOCTURNAL NOISE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21793, 7 May 1934, Page 12

NOCTURNAL NOISE

Sir, —I have a great deal of sympathy with the correspondent who signs him-! self "Dark Ages" in Friday's issue, under the heading "Noisy Nuisances." I, too, live on a main road, the silence i of which is broken every night by milk vendors, to the disturbance of my own slumbers and, I doubt not, the slumbers of others. Other noises are caused during the night by the occasional passing of motor-cars, but these are not so disturbing, because _ there is a smoothness and evenness in their noise which is lacking in the vehicles of-milk vendors. These are horse-drawn, and your lovely concrete roads in Auckland 'make a splendid eounding-board for the iron-shod hoofs of horses, especially when they trot, as they always do. There are two of these performances every morning, one at 3 a.m. and another at 5 a.m. Is it not possible for the number of deliveries to be reduced? In cases of sickness, especially, where sometimes life or death hangs on unbroken sleep, this' question of noises in the night is one of very serious importance. The milk vendor, in any case, has to be astir early, but it surely ought to be possible to meet every reasonable requirement in' this direction without invading the hours that properly belong to sleep. Sexex.

Sir, —May I be permitted to add a word to the very sensible remarks of "Dark Ages?" Noise at night is perhaps quite unavoidable in certain parts of the city, and the-main roads cannob be closed to all traffic, or even to milk vans, but it seems that the public might at least afford some measure of consideration to the sick. For two months, quite recently, I was in the Wallace Ward of the Public Hospital, which building is unfortunately close to Park Read corner, and I was amazed at the amount of noisy traffic which passes throughout the whole night. Motor-horns were sounded at all hours —I have heard them many times between midnight and three in the morn-ing—motor-bicycles with their throttles open roared past, and just as we began to persuade ourselves that the last of the dancers and theatre-goers were finally in bed, the lorries would start with their empty cans crashing against one another as they swung round the corner. This is bad enough in any place, but outside the hospital, where quiet and sleep is so essential, it becomes unforgivable. Surely it is not very much to ask that Park Road should be closed to traffic between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.? It is no hardship for a car to go round Symonds Street, instead of across the bridge—and Carlton Road and Grafton Road could easily take local traffic. After, a few weeks of prohibition. it would become quite natural. Could I appeal to all owners of cars and vehicles that they should remember this, and make a point of not passing the hospital at nieht, and at least of never blowing a horn? Y.S.N.