THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1907. WANGANUI VINDICATED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9015, 28 December 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1907. WANGANUI VINDICATED.

Wanganui is triumphant—or should be. As the pioneer in New Zealand of the fasting cure she was proud as a hen with her first egg until Dr. Bakewell, a noted Auckland medico, pooh-poohed the notion of living and enjoying life by a process of starvation. The doctor had issued many philippics against the conceit, and Wanganui trembled for the fate of her panacea. The man of medicine offered to stake his reputation upon the fallacy of the cure, and so sure was he of putting the believers in it to confusion, and knocking a folly upon the head before it had time to demoralise the whole community, that he proceeded to Wanganui, like Saul of old uttering "threatenings and vengeance." i He had not long in that town, however, before, also like Saul, he became suddenly converted, and he -immediately returned to Auckland to expatiate upon the folly of "kicking against the pricks." We are told that "as a result of his investgations he is perfectly satisfied as to the bona fides of every case that came under his notice." Wanganui is therefore vindicated. It seems to us, however, that Dr. Bakewell has been very easily convinced, considering the strenuousness and thoroughness of his previous denunciations. He was only a day or two in Wanganui, and I could not. possibly observe all that J one would imagine it necessary for ,

a: sceptic to .observe. It : is tovbe < feared that the hospitality of the i Wanganuians have had an effect upon ' his susceptible heart, and that he has . been induced to take a good deal on _ trust. A little fuller information as , to the investigations he has made on the subject would be interesting, and until it is given it is doubtful if his conversio'i will result in making many other converts. Nevertheless it is something that he has been the means of securing for Wanganui the beginnings, at least, of a happy new year. The doctor's conversion is at least seasonable, if not reasonable.' | j