B CAMPAIGN AGAINST NOISE

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19596, 7 June 1935, Page 4

B CAMPAIGN AGAINST NOISE

A oampaign has been launched in Europe to suppress unnecessary noises, as it is recognised they are a serious menace to health. Major Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport, has made the night hours in London peaceful. There it costs £2 to the careless motorist who dares to blow a horn between 11.30 p.m. and 7 a.m. Not only has the strictly enforced regulation brought quiet, but fewer accidents, it is declared. II Duce has given Rome “ silent nights,” and days as well, by similar regulation, incidentally going London one better by making the offender pay his fine on the spot. Escape from noise has always been felt necessary by some. Cicero fled periodically from the tumult of Rome to find quiet in his beloved villa at Pompeii. Judging from the ruts cut in the stones by the wheels of chariots, and still visible in the “ disinterred city ” nineteen centuries later, one wonders if he always found it there. Now the vista of an almost noiseless world stretches before u§. In the May issue of Porum, Dr. E. E. Free, a stalwart pioneer in the cause of ndise abatement, cites notable achievements of engineers, bulwarked by public regulation, in the reduction of din from motorbuses, milk waggons, street cars and subway trains. He credits the automotive industry with much quieting of lower-priced cars and of trucks. There are many in New Zealand, and some in Hamilton and other Waikato centres, who would warmly welcome the inauguration of an anti-noise campaign, especially during the watches of the night which can no longer he described as “silent.”