necessary but they remind us that Bermuda has a great many laws which are enacted to regulate our daily lives but are seldom enforced. It does seem that when there is a problem we pass a law and look at that as the solution. It is, of course, not the solution because solutions to social problems lie outside the law and in the realm of human behaviour. You can modify behaviour with reason but people who are going to offend against their neighbours in minor ways normally do so no matter what the law dictates.

It is true that problems tend to increase in tight and congested neighbourhoods during the outdoor days of summer. During the indoor days of winter neighbours are less liable to annoy than they are from yard to yard during the summer, or from house to house during the summer when noise is more noticeable through open windows. Maybe dogs are let outside more in the summer than they are on rainy winter nights and some dogs are destructive and become a neighbourhood nuisance. The irony is that some of the most destructive are quiet pets at home and therefore should be kept at home.

The noise pollution laws are tough but they do not seem to cut down much on summer noise nor are they well enforced. Basically the law says you cannot annoy your neighbours between midnight and 6 a.m. but you are controlled in the daytime as well by a law which says noise should not be heard 100 feet away from the same source if it causes annoyance to two or more people. If we do not enforce that, why did we enact the law? We do not, for example, even bother to publicise the law which says that two cyclists cannot ride abreast nor do we bother much with the light laws when it comes to pedal bikes.

We do not seem too concerned any more about the laws regulating the size and location of signs which we were once very keen to enforce.

We should not enact laws and then ignore them because it brings the body of the law into disrepute. We seem to think that passing a law is a solution in itself when laws do not solve anything. The only real solution to things like litter and noise pollution is modified public behaviour.

Enacting more and more laws only results in an over-regulated Country and the laws themselves replace the offences they are designed to prevent as an irritant. The solution seems to us to be a softer, more gentle approach which appeals to people's good sense to consider their neighbours rather than threatens them with the law.

There is something about threats of running people in which gets people's anger going and that is never real smart in the heat of summer. We need fewer minor laws and more appeals to Bermudians to consider their neighbours, especially since we are not going to run them in anyway because we so seldom enforce the laws.