A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Hokitika Jubilee Hokitika is holding its jubilee celebrations. On January 1, 1874, Westland was made a province. The chief cause of the sudden expansion of Otago and Canterbury, at a time when the northern provinces were struggling for their existence, was the discovery of gold, first of all in the mountains of Central Otago in 1801 and then on the West Coast. In a year the population of Otago was more than doubled. After gold was discovered on the West Coast a large population quickly sprang up on the gold-fields. In a very short time Hokitika was the busiest port in New - Zealand. The Provincial Council of Canterbury sent over officials to maintain order on the fields and undertook the responsibility of government. But the West Coasters soon began to complain that Canterbury was growing rich at the expense of the miners and a strong feeling grew up in favour of separation. In 1867 the General Assembly passed an Act which made Westland not a province, but a county, independent of Canterbury. In 1874 it was made a province. After the discovery of gold on the West Coast, field after field was opened up with amazing rapidity. Captains of vessels sailing along the coast saw a continuous line of fires, each denoting a party of miners. Prospectors pushed up the rivers and streams, and spread over terraces and hills. No single claim yielded its owner more than £5OOO a man, but there were many claims that vlould give from £lO up to £5O and sometimes £lOO a week a man. Hokitika was the scene of the first great rush. The diggers used to say that, if a man became saving and economical, his luck -would desert him. Examples were seen of men making £2O a week who by Wednesday, would be without a shilling. Saturday would see them again in funds, but the money would slip through their fingers in a day or two. It was not very long afterward that thousands of miners in the district were glad to be employed at regular work for £2 a week. Noise. An article in “The Dominion” draws attention to the noise created by motor-cycles and speed boats. Scientists have proved that hearing is apt to be impaired in those exposed to constant noise; noise interferes seri- , ously with the efficiency of the worker by lessening his attention and making concentration upon any task difficult; great strain is put upon the nervous system in the attempt to overcome the effect of noise; noise interferes seriously with sleep, even though in some cases it appears that the system is able to adjust itself so that wakefulness does not result; it is well established that the normal development of infants and young children is hindered by constant loud noises; A day spent in noisy surroundings can-be more exhausting,than the most arduous labour. Range of Noise. .

The range on the measuring instrument is covered by about 130 decibels. At about 100 decibels comes the noise of the pneumatic drill or of riveting operations, or of an aeroplane engine at close quarters; at 70-80 comes the express train; a London tube train at 80 decibels successfully drowns “ordinary conversation” at 50 decibels; a quiet garden in the suburbs drops to 20; the hush of the woods to about 10.- The conversation level at 50 decibels is, in the opinion of scientists, the temperate level to which all noise should be reduced. The relief of passing from 95 decibels to 65 decibels is comparable in every way to a drop in temperature from 95 degrees in the shade to 65 degrees. Using an audiometer, observers in New York measured from a fifthstory window the reception which Lindbergh got after flying the Atlantic. It registered 75 decibels, and drowned the brass band which was playing a few yards away. Lions and the Niagara Falls make more noise than a steamship siren. A noted scientist, in comparing London and New York, found that, while there were thoroughfares in London where a barking dog could not be heard 20 feet away, at certain traffic centres in New York, a tiger could roar toi its heart’s content without being heard by passers-by. In a railway train, travelling with an open window brings noise from 60 to 65 decibels into the compartment, making ordinary conversation at 50 decibels impossible. Once the window is closed the noise drops so that ordinary conversation is possible. Once the train enters a tunnel, however, the noise immediately rises to 70-80 decibels. With aeroplanes, the noise of the propeller is the dominant factor. In passenger liners of the most recent Imperial Airways types, a degree of silencing allowing of easy conversation has been achieved by double-walled cabins. Austrian Independence.

France and Italy are prime movers in a proposal to create a new central European security system guaranteeing the independence and • territorial integrity of Austria. Austria, although one of the oldest component units, of European civilisation, has never been, until 15 years ago, a state or a nation. The very word Austria—which means nothing but “western land"—did not acquire until comparatively modern times a precise geographical signification. The Austria over which the later Hapsburgs ruled and which they preserved intact (save for the loss of the Italian provinces, balanced by the acquisition of Bosnia and Herzegovina), till 1918, was a composite medley of language, race and religion, which had little relation to Austria as a geographical expression or to Austria as we know it to-day. Imbued with the spirit of the Holy Roman Empire (which, as Lord Bryce said, was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire), the Hapsburg ambitions were n£ver national. Austrian statesmen eschewed nationalism for the reason that if nationalism prevailed the “Empire of Austria” would split up into its component parts: Hungarians, Southern Slavs, tljg Poles, the Ruthenes, and the Rumanians would all break away and nothing would be left but the helpless and lifeless fragment which has in fact constituted Austria since 1919. It was partly loyalty to the House of Hapsburg, not any nationalism, that held the old Austro-Hun-garian Empire together. Men did not believe in Austria, but they believed in the Hapsburgs. All the States that have been carved out of the old Empire fear a restoration of the Hapsburg dynasty, for the reason that their subjects might feel once again some faint stirrings of the old Hapsburg allegiance—the allegiance which had for so long held them together.