A NOISY ONE

NZ Truth, Issue 1148, 1 December 1927, Page 7

A NOISY ONE

COMPLAINTS

He Manufactured Sleeplessness At Night /

(From "N.Z. Truth' s'V Special "Auck-

land Rep.)

If, one day recently, Finch Street, Morningside, appeared to be a very dismal and inanimate locality, it was because most of the residents had an appointment elsewhere. THEY were gathered at the Auckland . Magistrate's Court and, added to the party, were Lawyers Bennett and Terry, with Magistrate Cutten also m attendance and keenly interested. The origin of the court-gathering, dates back to Octobers 1923; when the Mt. Albert Borough council— like all good local authorities anxious to encourage enterprise ajnd business energy —permitted Ernest Griffiths to open up a motor-body faotory m Finch Street. But the Mt. Albert Council kneyr not to what extent the ambitious and diligent Griffiths would allow himself to go m the pursuit of his trade. So it was that the time came when complaints started to drop. lnto the counoll letter-box, until subsequently, a petition was oiroulated and the signatures of numerous neighbors of the factory lay on the council table as evidence that Tradesman Griffiths, with his body-building establishment, was becoming more a nuisance than an asset to the neighborhood.

The trouble was that hard-working Griffiths . would insist upon working overtime, and as a result of his zealous endeavors, certain of the locality found "occasion to complain. Even health m some cases, had been impaired by his busy hammer and saw, rat-tatting and seesawing into the late hours of the night. . - These representations to the council caused the authorities to reach to the book-shelves whereon , reposed the "Bible of by-laws," and after much cogitation, fingers pounced on a clause under which it was decided that Griffiths must be brought to book. Lawyer Terry presented the case for the Mt. Albert Borough Council,, it being alleged that Ernest Griffiths had caused a breach of the by-laws by sawing and hammering timber at nietfit to the annoyance of the neighborhood — the offences being set down as occurring between July 18 and August 11 of this year. . • "I could bring a hundred witnesses to prove the noise — -the grocer—the baker — " said one witness. "Good gracious!" was the alarmed interjection of the • lawyer. "Are they ooming here to-day?" • Another resident of Finch Street, an elderly woman — testified to the perpetual Sin that had kept Jier ■ awake. She had heard it hundred's of times, and, she added with emphasis, "the lions, in the Zoo are nothing to it." The defence included the fact' - that the manufacture of motorbodies required nails of no greater size than one inch m length. "I'm not going to pay my men 2/6 an hour to create a nuisance," said Griffiths—"l would have subdued the trouble, if even at my own inconvenience." Magistrate Cutten, m summing up the evidence, said he thought a nuisance had been committed and he would convict and order the defendant to pay costs. Intimating that he wished to appeal, counsel for the defendant asked that a fine be imposed, and m accordance with the request, a fine -of £6 was entered.