SPEEDBOAT NOISES

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20524, 14 June 1938, Page 9

SPEEDBOAT NOISES

NUISANCE ON RIVER warning to the owners LIABLE TO A FINE OF £2O. For some time, generally on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays, speedboats have been ploughing back and I'ortU on the Waikato River between the traffic bridge and tile Railway bridge and the noise of these craft wuen there is no silencer fitted has become a nuisance lo the people liviug in ihc vicinity, but particularly to patients in a private hospital. Complaints have been received by the police on {rcquouL occasions. The police have warned the owners of speed boats that, there are regulations governing the use of the river ui.d any further breaches caused by noisy speedboats will be dealt with in the Magistrate's Court. The Senior-Sergeant of Police is the supervising officer under the general harbour motor launch by-laws of the navigable waters of the Waikato River and it is not generally known by speedbeat users that lie lias the' personal authority of the Minister of Marine, the Hon. P. Fraser, to see that the by-laws are complied with. The clauses of the by-law which concern owners of speedboats on the Wp.ikato River, together with a proviso for regatta days are:— Clause five states that no person shall propel or navigate a motor launch not having a silencing device that has been approved as efficient by the supervising officer and is affixed to the engine thereof in such a manner that the exhaust is discharged through the silencing device'. Clause eleven states that no person shall create a nuisance arising from the speed, use or management of a motor-launch. In clause’twelve it is stated that on the occasion of any yacht, launch or boat race the supervising officer may declare the by-laws to be suspended for such period and in respect of such defined portion of any harbour (or other waterways governed by the bylaws) he thinks desirable, provided that the period of suspension and the defined portion of the harbour affected shall be notified beforehand in a newspaper circulating in the district. The by-laws also state that any person committing a breach of the laws shall he liable to a penalty not exceeding £2O.