An Unhealthy Community.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1871, 28 September 1906, Page 2

An Unhealthy Community.

(To the Editor Gisborne Times.)' Sir, —As a rule a public that vaunteth not its charity, accepts with avidity the unspoken belief that every family has a “ skeleton in its cupboard.” In your leading article of yesterday morning’s issue you write : “It is notorious that at the present time the conditions of living in and around Gisborne are not conducive to the most robust health, and it is equally certain that dangers to health lurk hi every square acre of the whole area occupied by its residents.” This is a

most sweeping assertion and one is forced to ask for the proofs to be published upon which you have been compelled apparently in the interests of the public to sow broad, east such a statement. I join issue with you, and do so because I have from personal observation during a residence of twontyssix years noted that with the exception of a few wet summers the town of Gisborne, taken on a population basis, has been as free, if not more so, from dirt diseases, than either Wellington or Napier, It should be remembered in any com-

parative analysis of health returns that Gisborne being possessed of a mild climate, a great number of people come to reside in it for health sake. I hold straight away that if you can prove by statistics the truth of what you say, that the publishing of it is even then quite unnecessary, because whether it be true or untrue, the city fathers have for a long time past been

doing their utmost to provide all the essentials that aggregate, and conduce to health and what is accepted as modern conveniences. May I ask you to visit our public schools and then write your ini pressions as to the physique and healthy

appearance of the children. May I ask you to stand at one of the street corners on a Saturday afternoon and watch the progress of our inhabitants to and fro on the footpaths, and write and say whether you think they are a fragile, siekly-looking | people. I have done this and' my impression is for size, general appearance and robust health, you will hardly find their equal in any town in the colonics I regret to say that for years it has been most unfortunate that hysterical cries have been raised in our midst to lay bare every

minor disadvantage that imaginative people appear to fancy is peculiaAo this town and district, But in spite of all their croaking they are still with us, and the progress of the town and country i a proof that their dismal wailings l lave not brought disaster upon us lam A. FQRDE MATTHEWS.