The town of Rushden may well claim to be one of the healthiest places in the whole country. For many years now the death-rate has been a very low one, and the annual report of the County Medical Officer of Health, presented at the last meeting of the Northamptonshire County Council, shows that once again Rushden has the lowest death-rate in the county, the deaths during the past year numbering only a fraction over eight per thousand of the population. Rushden is closely followed by its neighbour, the borough of Higham Ferrers, where the death-rate was only a fraction over nine per thousand of the population. Taking the administrative county of Northamptonshire, the general mortality rate for the past year is a very satisfactory one, namely 11•97 per thousand of the population, which is 0•57 per thousand below the average County rate for the past ten years, while it is 2•73 per thousand lowere than the rate for the same period for England and Wales. To show how favourably Northamptonshire compares in the matter of the death-rate with the rest of England and Wales, we quote from Dr. Paget’s interesting report the following figures regarding mortality:

Bearing in mind the fact that the death-rate for the whole of England and Wales last year was 14 per thousand of the population and that in the large towns of England and Wales it was 14•7 per thousand, the rate of only 8•9 per thousand in Rushden and 9•7 per thousand in Higham Ferrers will be found to be extremely low. Undoubtedly the magnificent water supply with which Rushden and Higham Ferrers are favoured has much to do with the low rate of mortality, and the efficient drainage schemes of the two towns also have their good effect on the health of people. Dr. Paget gives the following figures for the urban districts in the administrative county, which, it should be explained, does not include the borough of Northampton and the city of Peterborough:-

Taking the rural districts, we find the rates of mortality per thousand of the population to be as follow:-

There are, of course, in Rushden and Higham Ferrers, plenty of people who grumble at the amount of rates they have to pay, but if they would only look at the thing fairly and squarely, they would see that they get better value for the money paid to the rate-collector than for any other coin they spend, because the effective sanitation, the pure water supply, and other municipal enterprises for which the rates are levied have resulted in a lower death rate, or, in other words, have led to the longer life of the inhabitants.