TOUGH STOMACHS AT GONVILLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 7

TOUGH STOMACHS AT GONVILLE

Sir, —I write to ask you if I am correct in my impression that when the question of building the works at Imlay was submitted to the ratepayers, the assurance was given that there would be absolutely no offensive smell? Of course, what is offensive may be a technical question. Nevertheless, I think that we residents are entitled to some protection, for every morning and evening and generally most of the day, the disgusting odours are so thick and penetrating that it takes a good, tough stomach to retain its contents.

I have been told by experts that this can be avoided. If so, why not? In view of the warning which appeared in your columns recently that if more care in using the water supply was not exercised these valuable works might not be able to continue. One is tempted to defy your warning and run one’s hose all night if that were to make the works to "dry up.” Now, sir, is it not reasonable to suppose that this otherwise highly desirable residential area is suffering more from restricted rental value than it is benefiting from any imagined virtue in enduring this seasonal affliction? The unprofitableness of our tramways system, we have been told, is due mainly to the vast unsettled areas which it comprises, as compared, for example, with the more densely populated areas in, say, New Plymouth and Palmerston. We need population; perhaps more than anything else. Ours is a beautiful city. Why can we not attract that population? In the near future, when the Balgownie swamp has been drained and brought into profit, the rental value to the city should increase tremendously if only an assurance could be given that the above nuisance could be permanently eliminated.

Trusting that due consideration will be given to this very important question, I am, etc.,

■ONE OF THE MANY SUFFERERS. Gonville. Feb. 7, 1939.