TO WARN PUBLIC

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 129, 14 July 1941, Page 5

TO WARN PUBLIC

EMERGENCY SCHEME STREET LIGHTING SWITCHES Gradually everything necessary is being done by the Emergency Precautions Scheme organisation in Auckland to meet an. emergency should the signal bei given. Rules and regulations; for New Zealand generally: have been laid down for a black-out of all lights, street, house, office and shop, and for the masking of car lights. The siignal will be intermittent, ten-secomj blasts by siren, whistle or hooter, or tlie ringing of bells. It is possible, even probable, that no war warning, other than thai for a trial will be sounded in New Zealand, but the E.P.S. and the emergency black-out rules have been designed for the possibility that remains, and they cannot begin, to operate unless there can be given an immediate and unmistakable warning that every person must —not merely can —hear day or night. Britain adopted the siren warning for cities and towns of any size as it was, considered that the siren was the most effective warning device. The system adopted for Auckland is the sounding of sirens from the various fire stations, that are so liberally scattered throughout the metropolitan area. No rehearsal has been held so far. It will be some weeks before a trial is made because much has yet to be done to put the street' iighting system in a state allowing it to be blacked out expeditiously. When the first E.P.S. rehearsal was held in Wellington recently the largest siren on hand was switched on at the Town Hall and according to the Evening Post it was only just audible to people in city buildings in Willis Street, '"provided they knew it was to be sounded and were listening for it."