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upon us from without we can or ought to be able to check, or
certainly to regulate or diminish. I refer to the number of
petty annoyances that keep us perpetually on the alert night and
day, such as street calls and shouting, whether during the day or
at the closing of the public houses, loud, vulgar, insane choruses
by half drunken men in vans and brakes, especially on Sunday
nights along the main road, the majority coming from the
direction of Harrow and the regions beyond, vulgar horse play
by lads at or near the station at night, perpetual barking of
dogs often all night, especially in Ranelagh Road, epidemic of
organ grinders in our streets, fiercely shrill and apparently unnecessary
whistling from the railway engines of fast trains
approaching or passing through Wembley, add to these a chime
of eight bells if not actually discordant, certainly in no way
melodious, and you have a few of the noisy nuisances that we
could so easily do without.
I happen to know a number of nervous people who have
come purposely to reside here to be away from the bustle and
noise of the great city, to enjoy the quiet and the semi-rural
character of the place, to do their gardening or to read in peace,
and go to bed at nine or ten, but who often find it impossible
or difficult, when even night is made horrid with these nuisances.
I suggest that the County Council bye-laws be more rigidly
enforced, that the mounted police wait upon the blackguards
on the vans, that the Railway Companies be asked to be less
vindictive with their whistling, that some concerted action be
taken to reduce the number of street organs, householders
patronising only one a week instead of three in the space of a
few hundred yards, as was seen in Wembley a few days ago.
I feel that many of these nuisances could be abolished, and
I am sure you will not regard these matters as too trivial for
your notice when you come to consider my report in detail.
Home Lessons and Overpressure at School.
During the past year it has frequently been brought to my