GUN PRACTICES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22955, 5 February 1938, Page 18

GUN PRACTICES

EFFECT OF FIRING RESIDENTS AT NORTH HEAD COMPLAINTS TO THE COUNCIL Complaints that the target practices held at North Head cause distress to children, and to people in poor health or in a nervous condition, have been received by the Devonport Borough Council. Mr. A. E. Wilson, the town clerk, wrote to the Defence Department in December, suggesting oil behalf of the council that heavy gun practices should be carried out farther from the centre of population. The Defence Department replied that it was considered impracticable from a national security point of view to discontinue firing from North Head, and that furthermore, as these guns formed part of the defensive scheme for the protection of the suburbs of Auckland, it was essential that they should be used in their war-time positions.

Regarding a suggestion in Mr. "Wilson's letter that a small gun should be fired as a warning before and after practices, the Defence Department replied that this had been considered, but it was thought that such a measure would tend only to increase the total amount of sound, and that a warning of this sort would naturally not be heard by all the people who would hear the subsequent heavy discharges. Mr. Wilson then wrote suggesting that a sir'en should be installed to give a warning before and after target practice. The council is awaiting a reply to this suggestion. Mr. H. J. Hutciiins, a member of the Borough Council, who formerly lived in Mackv Avenue, North Head, for 12 years, but removed two years ago to Takapuna, said that during his residence in Macky Avenue he had to leave his house when gun practices were in progress. The practices, ho says, have decreased the value of property in the North Head district.