Giving a hoot

To toot or not to toot? It’s a question that has exercised many a mind in our fair city, including that of councillor Chris CalviFreeman. He wants Wellingtonians to refrain from their time-honoured tradition in the Mt Victoria tunnel, on the grounds that it’s not a ‘‘victimless’’ piece of fun. If you happen to be walking or cycling through the tunnel, the racket can be more than a little tiresome, he pointed out. He has been supported by the Hearing Association Wellington, which says tooting in the tunnel can cause hearing damage.

But today it appears likely that a merry band of tooters will disregard these warnings by attempting to set a record for the number of toots in the tunnel in one day. An event organised on Facebook has apparently been postponed, but police and NZTA say they’ll be monitoring the area nonetheless. A rival Facebook group has also attempted to rally opponents to greet the cavalcade with a barrage of rotten fruit.

How have we come to this; a possible demonstration and counter-demonstration all over a few pesky parps? In some ways, we should be glad that’s all we’ve got to get worked up about in this paradise at the bottom of the world. While the gilets jaunes set Paris alight, and Venezuela is in the throes of a constitutional crisis, we can’t give a hoot about anything except the blast of a car horn in a rather short tunnel.

This paper is all for a bit of fun, but deliberately causing a public nuisance, either with car horns or pieces of fruit, is not most people’s idea of a pleasant way to spend a weekend. Come on, Wellington, show some restraint.