NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22206, 5 September 1935, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

AVOIDABLE TRAFFIC NOISES Most traffic noise is caused by cars and lorries in bad physical condition, writes James T. Flexner, former executive secretary, Noise Abatement Commission, New York, in the News Chronicle. A recently overhauled car makes little noise; it is the loose doors that rattle, the faulty brakes that squeak, the decrepit engines that bang and gag. If all the cars on Piccadilly were in good repair the noise of Piccadilly would be reduced from 60 to 80 per cent. Here, again, is a matter for public education. If every owner of a dilapidated car realised that as he went banging through the city ho carried with him a fertile cause of nervous disease, and that he himself was his own main victim, he would take his car to a garage to be overhauled, And then, when most cars were in relatively good condition, you could use the law to get after the slackers who were unwilling to help themselves. "NO REAL NEED TO RUSH" By this time British motorists have had every opportunity of appreciating the effects of the traffic regulations (including the re-imposition of a speed limit in built-up areas) which came into force a few months ago, wrote Mr. Barre Lyndon in the Windsor Magazine. It seemed logical to expect that if drivers were repeatedly slowed down in towns and villages they would really let their cars out when the buildings had been left behind, endeavouring to make up for lost time. In actual practice, however, the limit has largely produced the reverse result. " It's very queer when you think about it," one gentleman said. " I used always to be in something of a hurry from the moment I left home until I got to wherever I was going. Now I'm obliged to start off nice and comfortably at thirty. I open up a bit when I'm clear of the lamp-posts, but before I've got warmed up I run into another restricted area and have to slow down. I'll admit that it annoyed me at first, but I've got used to it now. I simply take things easily. These spells of slow going make you realise that, after all, there's no real need to rush."

ADVICE TO LOCALISE WAR_ It is urged that if nothing can be done in the Abyssinion business any more than in the Manchurian, no further good can be expected from the League of Nations, and that it would be far better for it to die nobly by harakiri, writes Mr. J. L. Garvin in the London Observer. This is hysterical madness. Do not Jet us act as though we had all become wooden puppets jerked by the ironical non-members at Berlin and Tokio. The supreme purpose at this moment is to keep the League alive. It is diminished and enfeebled enough. Statesmen ought to make up their minds to admit present weaknesses, limitations, and embarrassments; to warn all concerned against plunging from bad to worse; and in short to tell the truth, or as much of it as they can dare, at the meeting of the League Council. . . Another evil in a distant field may still be isolated and perhaps shortened by a policy of vigilant wariness on the part of this country and some others. Let British statesmen see to it that they strive to localise and not universalise the mischief. European civilisation and the League, Mr. Garvin argues, can survive another local war. They could not survive another general war. All capable thought and action must be determined by grasp of that distinction and by nothing else. FLATS OR SMALL HOUSES Miss Margaret Bondfield, ex-Minister of Labour in Britain, writing in Labour, says:—Modern flats should provide better facilities in urban areas than small houses, because there is the possibility of more accommodation on tho same ground space; and —given an adequate lift service, to avoid the fatigue of long flights of stairs—more fresh air and quiet can bo secured the higher up one goes, as well as more social amenities shared in common, such as central heating, collection of refuse, laundry, children's playgrounds and gardens, which can be better planned and maintained in connection with a block of flats than when the ground is divided into a small strip for each house. Of course, for those who love gardens and who want to grow flowers and footstuffs in them, no other amenity would seem to be an adequate compensation; but, alas! urban areas are already so densely built on that the kind of garden a gardener wants is already out of reach. So, in my opinion, the future of urban housing lies in the self-contained flat, with an extension of town planning for houses with gardens outside urban areas, but linked up with them by cheap transport to encourage a movement outward of such of the population as can move. THE ANNUAL VACATION The holiday season in England has inspired a discussion on how to make the most of the annual vacation. Mr. J. B. Priestley says in the Star that the only way to enjoy a holiday is to do what you really want to do, and not what you think you ought to want to do, and not what other people think you ought to want to do. Never mind, Mr. Priestley continues, if it is unreasonable or unhealthy or unedifying. Go and do it. If you do not want to enjoy sea breezes and sands, stop at home and have nothing to do with them. If you would rather spend a day in bed than have a ride into the country, then stay in bed and do not allow anybody to talk you out of it. If you want to be quiet, do not let them persuade you into being noisy. Whose holiday is it? If you are away from home, do not be bullied into seeing the sights if you do not want to see them. Let those people who are anxious to see the waterfall or to explore the cathedral go and do these things, without dragging in other folk. Do not submit to the press gang. England is a tolerant country except in the matter of its pastimes and pleasures. Men who do not mind your having different religious beliefs and political opinions will gape at you in amazement, horror, disgust, if you tell them you cannot share their particular pleasures. " What," they exclaim, " not like watching cricket 1" Now it is during holidays that this intolerance is seen at its worst. Nice, mild people are dragooned into wasting their precious hours of liberty on activities they secretly detest. My advice is: Don't submit. Enjoy yourself in your own way. A holiday, Mr. Priestley concludes, should be 9, temporary release.