THE SMOKE NUISANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20743, 14 June 1929, Page 7

THE SMOKE NUISANCE.

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —The timely letter on this subject by Mr P. W. Shacklock, which appeared in this morning’s Daily Times, directs attention to a matter of great importance. The smoke is more than a nuisance, it is a positive menace to health, and indeed is doubtless a contributing factor to an increased death rate, Mr Shacklock draws attention to the smoke-belching of the locomotives, which certainly plays a large part in the creation of this nuisance. He states that the Railways Department in Christchurch has overcome this trouble by utilising smokeless fuel in the locomotives. Surely if this can be done in Christchurch it should be possible in Dunedin, the home city of the Minister of Railways, but I am afraid that, unless more agitation is set afoot, little will be done.

The whole question of the smoke nuisance is a matter that should be taken in hand, because of its importance from a hygienic standpoint. Our city is but young yet. and if steps are taken to eliminate this evil, it will become more clean and beautful than it is at present. Now is the time for us to act ere the same conditions arise which, in many instances, exist in the Homeland. A recent letter in the Daily Chronele (London) says; u Parliament, with one stroke of the pen, could abolish the soot that hangs like a funeral pall over all the’big English cities. It would only-have to write ‘ Nothing but smokeless fuel.’ ” Commenting on the foregoing, the editor of the Efficiency Mngazme says: “ Any foreigner might think that it was a part ot our national religion to endure soot. Our sacred soot! All our industrial cities are filthy with it. It makes the lives of women ceaseless drudgery. And yet it has gone on for 100 years. Shall we never have a clean England? Is there no man strong enough, and indignant enough, to get this job done? Is there no Plimsoll who will teach us to be clean and stop us from drenching our cities and gardens and countryside with costly smoke and fog? Some one man will do it, some day. Parliament never will.” It is to be hoped that Mr Shackloek’s letter will produce some definite results in the way of inducing our City Council, the Kailways Department, and the other powers that be, to take immediate steps for the mitigation and subsequent abolishing of the smoke nuisance.—l am, etc „ J . T A. G. M. Dunedin, June 13.