The Dominion. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1935. THE WAR ON NOISE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 91, 11 January 1935, Page 8

The Dominion. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1935. THE WAR ON NOISE

“Your streets are much too noisy,” declares Sir Hemy Powlei in an interview to-day. This distinguished engineer is we ffualffied to pass judgment on the racket of Wellington, for among other things he is a member of the Anti-Noise Committee of (he Bnt.sh Transport Board. Most of us will agree with him that not only do our tram cars make too much noise—“some cars appear to be noisier than others,” he says—but also we are tolerating noises from old engines, gear-changing, motor-cycle exhausts, and other causes against which the wffiole wwld is beginning to> move.” Noises have mul iphed, and become intensified, as civilisation, has progressed. Society ai to <- point has accepted these in a spirit of resignation, believing tha it is part of the price human beings must pay for progress. What it is o y beginning to realise is the subtle mischief modern noises are doin & to human health, to human nerves especially. ■ There has been a marked increase in the incidence ot nervous disorders in recent years. For this the high tension and stress o modern life is partly responsible, but noise,. it is. now admitted, is an important causative factor'. Public opinion is being organised aga.nst it? In England the Anti-Noise League has made excellent progress in its campaign against preventable racket. It is fortunate in having for its support the active sympathy of the. Minister of Iranspoit, Mr. Hore-Belisha, who recently abolished night motor-horn in built-up areas throughout England, and so earned the applause ot a grateful public. His action followed upon the findings of a conference of the Anti-Noise League held at Oxford in July last Although he did not go as far as the league would have liked, what he actually did do aroused greater public interest in its campaign, am strengthened his hand for further raids into the territory of noise. We may never be able to recover that blessed degree of silence in which a pin can be heard drop, but what we can and should do is to take the various instruments of the discordant orchestra ot noise one by one and either abolish or diminish the nuisance created bv them. ’ Scientific investigation has already produced certain curious aiid interesting results. It has been shown, for example, that double windows, properly spaced, have the effect of diminishing' external noises, but unequally spaced they actually accentuate noise. -1 hat the scientist, who has contributed not a little to the multiplication and intensification of modern noises, should now have to exert himself to control them seems like poetic justice. What does Wellington propose to do about its noisy tramcars, the racket of its motor traffic, its loudspeakers, and other contributory causes of our drawn state of nerves ? We had a statement some time to the effect that the tramway authorities were earnestly trying to quieten their vehicles. There have been no appreciable results. Is there any witness in our midst who can tell us that.it is really possible to have a tramway system which can be run without compelling people to raise their voices in conversation f We would be glad to have his testimony. Is there a Minister bold enough to follow the example of Mr. Hore-Belisha in silencing.the tooting motorist; The community will never be able to subdue its noises until it concentrates systematically upon the task. ‘Noise, said Loid Hotdei. chairman of the Anti-Noise League, and an eminent physician, m an address at the conference in July, “is incompatible with the cultivation of the quiet mind, with poise and equanimity, and.it is these things that we are losing—priceless things, to regain which will bring us nearer to the solution of the world’s unrest than anything yet proposed.” This desirable consummation is surely worth a concentrated effort to achieve. People are beginning to long, as they have never longed before, for peace and quiet, but they will never obtain these ' blessings unless, paradoxically speaking, they make a noise about it.