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THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 10, 1938.
The China Mail
Tinety Third Year of Publication
***Distracted' communities pre being driven to revolt against
Wyndham Street, Hong Kong, noise of all kinds, and the car horn has already been outlawed at night throughout the whole of
Telephonë 20022.
London Office:
OKA
7, Garrick Street, London, W.c.2. London. The Hore-Belisha ban is reported to have produced silence with safety. H.K$ 9.00
Subscription Rates.
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6 Months
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Postage Abroad Extra Hong Kong. Thursday, Feb. 10, 1938
The motor horn, of course, is" only one factor in the serious problem of noise. We live in a rowdy age, an age of many in- ventions, most of which add to the clamour of existence. Even NOISE MENACE
the air, once the abode of silence, is filled with the drone of aero- The coming and passing of planes or the raucous voice of Chinese New Year to the accom-the neighbour's non-stop wire- paniment of the ear-splitting less. The Colony's suburbis, bark of fire-crackers has led to thus invaded, is no longer a cer- la controversy which were better tain harbour of refuge from the directed to the general problem city's din. It is probable that of the menace of noise in the city, noise, which the Oxford English than to a specific manifestation Dictionary defines as the aggre- of a celebratory character, of gate of loud sounds arising from comparatively short duration. busy community," produces The most serious noise evil that land of protective immunity · în has to be tackled in this Colony city workers who are incessant- is not the cracker enthusiast. it ly exposed to it, but the toll upon is still, as it has been for many health is nevertheless consider- years, the motorist who drives on able. Etymologists have › sug- the horn. The optimist of the gested that the word "noise" story, who was supposed to have may have originated in the Latin acquired a motor horn in the "pauses" or "noxsia." The mod- hope some day of being able to ern effects of excessive sound own a car to go with it, may are often injurious enough to not have acted so paradoxically lend colour to such a derivation. after all. For there are motor- Many nervous troubles are direct- |ists—a - minority, fortunately ly traceable to this cause, and who regard the horn as the most the noise abatement societies agreeable if not the most impor-which have sprung up all over the tant part of the automobile world have shown that the in- equipment. They specialise in the creasing racket of the modern most strident type of siren. Its world's mechanised cities is cacophony is music to their ears, very real evil. and they regard it as almost the
in intimida-
whole duty of a driver to keep Feeling the Strain his finger pressed on the button at intersections,
One of Britain's MPs has tion of some unsuspecting pede- been explaining that he regards strian. A device designed mere it as his duty not to seek re- ly to give warning of danger election at the next general elec becomes, in such hands, a mina-tion because he finds that be tory and nerve-shattering instru- cannot efficiently combine his ment of discord. Nor are
the Parliamentary responsibilities incessant horn-blowers the only with the proper care which noise-producing pests of the father should henceforward de- road. There are young gentle vote to an only child, a boy who men who deem it necessary to is at present a little short of announce the break up of a late four years old. Judging by the night party in residential areas prominence (and pictures) at- by sounding a fiendish tattoo on tached to the zealous parent's the hooters of their departing cars statement in many of the rever
which, as often as not, are in-papers one has a feeling that the adequately silenced, and rattle M.P. in question may yet live to like machine-guns as they race regret that he ever decided to down the outraged street. It is make public the reasons for his the nocturnal horn-sounder who withdrawal from political life. It is most aggravating to the com-is all very well to have up-to- munity's nerves. By day the date, serious, and enlightened screech of the motor hooter is views about child welfare, but more or less absorbed into the it is difficult to avoid the thought multitudinous noises which as- that a slightly tougher and more sail the ear of the modern city resolute age than this would have dweller It is just one more ele-been mightily surprised at the ment in the uproar. But at proposition that looking after night, and especially late at night, one son is a whole-time job for the motor horn operated by said son's male parent, and that thoughtless persons can become if a choice has to be made be- an intolerable nuisance; and it tween paternity and politics it is the abuse and not the discrim-is-politics that must take the inating and considerate use of a back seat.
A
necessary apparatus that is lead- Any such theory would have ing to a demand for an extension greatly depopulated the House of of the Silent Zone system until Commons in those vigorous Vic- it becomes universal throughout torian days when papa's quiver- the Colony.
ful might easily run to a round
The fact is that noisy motor-dozen. But in those days it was ing by day or night is just an-mamma's privilege not only to other form of bad driving. Im- produce but to tend and nurture patience and discourtesy are the household progeny; all that among the worst offences on the was expected to papa was that road The mannerless driver he should be the bread winne tries to blare his way through and grow lovely side-whiskers. traffic, vehicular or pedestrian. A dozen offspring meant little to Frequent and protracted use of him in the way of day-to-day per the horn is his – substitute for sonal duties; the distaff side, with courtesy and care. And it is the or without other female assia- selfish, careless motorist
sponsible in the main for
position of the immu
ictions which ar make motoring an highly technical undert stead of a source of
is tance, looked after that aspect of the family affairs. Now a single son ible of four years old can apparently upset the paternal apple-cart. It and may be evidence of our greater
in-earnestness, but it all sounds
little odd and unexpected.