WEALTHY INVALIDS AND MANY DOCTORS: SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN BOURNEMOUTH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22612, 15 April 1948, Page 4

WEALTHY INVALIDS AND MANY DOCTORS: SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN BOURNEMOUTH

Said to be the wealthiest town in proportion to its population —about 120,000—in Great Britain, Bournemouth on the South Coast of England has an unusual proportion of invalids and very old people. It also has more doctors per 1000 of population than any other town in the United Kingdom.

A Gisborne traveller, Mr. James Innes, sees a connection between these facts. “Most of the invalids are wealthy or well-to-do, which accounts for the number of doctors,” he comments in a letter giving some impressions of travel.

He and Mrs. Innes have been spending a holiday in the South Coast resort, which, together with freedom from poverty and an absence of any "poor part” in the town, enjoys a situation with an extremely mild climate and a most interesting countryside in close proximity. Large and well-appointed hotels cater for visitors, who can take advantage of country tours through areas of historic and scenic interest within easy reach of Bournemouth. Of interest to many New Zealanders who served in either World Wars are Mr. and Mrs. Innes’s warm impressions of Weymouth, a New Zealand base in the first war and a popular resort for men on leave from “N.Z.E.F.” formations. Mr. Innes described Weymouth as a fine town with a very long frontage on the sea. Historic Village Monument From Bournemouth the Gisborne travellers toured the Hardy country, and visited cottages and other points of interest which the great English novelist mentioned in “Tess of the D’Ubervilles” and “Old Wessex Tales”. They were particularly interested in a village named by Mr. Innes

as Puddleton, which was the scene of an historic meeting in 1835 following which six men were tried, convicted and transported to Australia for combining together to form a trade union. The village has to-day a monument to the “Toflpuddle Martyrs”, and the trade union movement also has its own memorial to the six men in a number of cottages used as almshouses. Trees Treated With Respect The fondness of people in Britain for dogs, previously mentioned by Mr. Innes in another letter, is equalled by the respect which they show for trees, especially in such favoured parts of the country as Bournemouth. There, a tree is treated as something worth cherishing. and where brick walls have been built on property boundaries they have, in mar.v cases, been diverted to avoid the destruction of handsome trees. In other cases the walls have been built up to both sides of trees, while in some places old trees are so revered that well-constructed footways are not allowed to cause their destruction. In one place not far from Mr. and Mrs. Innes’ accommodation there was a fine old tree growing right in the middle of the roadway!