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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2170, 28 August 1907, Page 1

[To the Editok.] ' Sir.—As a visitor to Gisborne, 1 •have been much impressed with the '■solidity ol' the town, and the great amount of business done therein, and like most other visitors, I cannot help feeling that it has bolore it a great •and pleasing future. The good impressions thus obtained have, how'ever, been somowhat counteracted by 'some of the ancient and out-of-date methods on the part of the Borough 'Council in its conduct of the town, and it is to one of these methods, if 1 may so call thorn, that I wish to Jdraw attention. I refer to the manlier in which expectoration on the footpath is allowed. Having been resident at the Masonic Hotel for ten days, I have had ample opportunities to notice the conduct of people on the streot, and I was considerably surprised to learn ■that the habit, of expectoration on the pavement was not a breach of the bye-law, and was not even considered a breach of good manners. Almost any fine afternoon, and particularly on Saturdays, crowds of men, Natives and Pakehas alike, may bo seen assiduously practising the filthy habit above-referred to, and it is a matter for wonder that the Borough Council has not ta'ken steps in this matter long ere this.

No one . will deny that pavement expectoration—a dirty and degrading habit at) all times—is a serious menace to public health, and I ask, Sir: “Is the health of the people of Gisborne of such little consequence that any action in the matter is unnecessary?” It may bo—and I have not been hero long enough to judge—that the chief town of Poverty Bay is such a very healthy place that the public health requires no particular attention, but I can hardly reconcile this with the Chief Health Officer’s report, recently published on the town.

In almost any other town of consequence in New Zealand, one constantly perceives printed notices requesting the pedestrian not to expectorate on the footpath, and, be it said to the credit of the police and the public alike, these requests arc rigorously onlorced and as rigorously observed.

Apart altogether, too, from the ; question of health, think how disgusting it must bo to ladies who lave to constantly traverse the footjaths and who never do so without laving to carefully pick their steps and hold tlieir dress up to prevent contact with a footpath so strewn with expectorations as to be almost unfit for them to walk upon. Now. Sir, no ono likes to think his town is behind the times or that the inhabitants of it uiaitain certain practices inimical to the health and general welfare of the people, and were I a resident of Gisborne, I would certainly never be contented until the authorities bad taken such steps as would act as a preventative to the habit of expectoration so prevalent here. In conclusion, I may say that tins is by no means intended as a criticism of the good people of Gisborne, or of the Borough Council as a whole, its purpose being, rather, to serve as ii suggestion which ought, to bo and which will, I trust be eventually adopted, and which will, here as elsewhere be proved to be undoubtedly for the best interests of the people. —1 am, etc, J. SHAW THOMPSON.