The Motor-Cycle Pest

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 13

The Motor-Cycle Pest

Sir, —Your correspondent “H.P.” has done well for the peace of citizens at night in calling attention to the openexhaust nuisance. Alas! as the writef shows, there is not much hope for alleviation, because it is not another by-law that is necessary, but firm enforcement of a by-law framed with the specific purpose of dealing with this pest. Permit me to point out that Oriental Bay is not the only residential section of the city suffering from this now intolerable motor-cycle pest, nor are motorcyclists the only offenders. I speak feelingly as a resident in the Mount Victoria area of the nerve-racking night noises made by open, exhausts of motor-cycles, especially at any time between midnight and three in the morning, the roaring, too, of certain makes of small cars when taking sharp rises such as Ellice Street, Brougham Street and Pirie Street. A warning, “Hospital,” shown in Brougham Street near a private institution has not the slightest effect upon motor-cyclists and the drivers of the small cars to which I have referred. There is also the loud door slamming of cars shattering the stillness of the night; there is also the brutal use of the motor-horn to' hurry up noisy and cackling women and loud-voiced and sometimes bibulous men leaving a house party. The City Solicitor’s Office knows quite well what constitutes a noise nuisance, and what is a disturbance of the peace. It should not need “H.P.” or any other correspondent suffering from this increasing pest of ill-mannered motorcyclists and motorists to remind it that it already has a by-law dealing with this intolerable nuisance. The fact of the matter is, as “H.P.” shows, flaming youth personified by the noisy motorist or motor-cyclist is .getting out of hand in Wellington.—l am, etc., HOW LONG?