[Avalon]

Or in fact anyone else.

Ive just had an email of a friend who is about to Buy in Featherstone and shes in a panic:

A lady here has just scared the hell out of me with statistics of children who have died in the Wairarapa! She said you don't send your kid to school there. 9 of the 15 children who've been killed in Welly have been in the Wairarapa and in some cases the schools didn't notice when the kid didn't turn up to school. I'm not feeling so great anymore :o( And this lady's last words were "see if you can get out of the contract". You haven't heard anything like this have you?

Now I know there are problems with child deaths - but really - is it THAT bad here - cos it doesnt seem so to me.

What do you think of the schools here - from what I recall you seem pretty happy with what you have seen. Are you noticing any problems so far?

Sorry to be so serious!

[Smiler]

Helen it sounds a bit like scaremongering. I've just looked at the statistics gov page and wellington isn't high at all. But thats not just children though. There is something here that says the area has had more than it's fair share.
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=24337

Are they talking about road deaths or murders? Did your friend expand anymore?

Found this also, it seems it may be a socio-economic thing www.wairarapa.dhb.org.nz/wdhb/aboutwdhb

D

[sizzlingbadger]

Not sure where that's come from ... what a load of rubbish. Not heard of one child being killed here in the time we've been here (nearly 8 mths in Featherston).

The schools are great, especially St Teresas where my eldest has started. They have class registers same as any other school and you're not allowed off campus without permission. The kindy even rings up me if Nik has gone to pick the kids up because I haven't told them ! !

There's loads of new families just moved into the area and everyone is really friendly. If you want I can PM my details to you for her and she can meet with us once here. There's so many groups for the youngesters she won't have time to think about things like that.

Can I be cheeky and ask where she's buying here :D

[Avalon]

Cheers both.

Im not sure where exactly they are buying - I know they have thier eye on one or two properties there.

I also know (if im remembering rightly ) that there was a bad murder in the area a few years ago - it was in the news when we first came here. " little girls were killed by thier mother's boyfriend. I cant honeslt be sure if it was Featherston - but even so - its indicative more of some of the socail problems in NZ rather than with Featherston.

Besides - im sure if there was a problem you would just "feel" it, which is why I thought you would be good to ask. Im pretty positive i'd know if I had kids.

The other thing that occurs to me is the socioeconmic picture here is changing anyway - with more and more people coming out here from Welly - just as we have done. So even if this were a particularly grizzly area it wouldnt be staying taht way - would it?

Anyway - ive passed that on - ill let you know what happens.

[GeorgeM]

I think that there was the murder of a young girl in that area not too long ago - a drug addict who was the partner of the girl's mother I recall.

At the time there was some mention that the area was a bit depressed and had more than its fair share of claimants etc because it was the nearest place to Wellington where the rents were affordable on benefit. This isn't to say that those living on benefit are going to cause problems - I give the information to explain why the area might appear to score lower on socio-economic indicators than elsewhere.

The area might well have had a far higher rate of child murders in recent years than the rest of NZ, I don't know, but given that the overall numbers for this sort of thing are very very low it is a statistic that is going to get skewed out of all proportion by one or two incidents.

I think that for child murder / ill treatment / abuse (of whatever variety) NZ follows most of the rest of the world in that such acts are normally carried out by someone very close to the victim rather than purely at random.

[sizzlingbadger]

Yes unfortunately there was a murder of a young girl which happened, I believe, around three years ago. A family affair that doesn't get talked about by anyone here.

Speaking to people around here, Featherston wasn't that nice a place to live three years ago. But neither was Martinborough, Greytown etc.

BUT the Wairarapa it's self is very up and coming with a lot of people having moved out and a lot of Wellingtonians moving in from Upper Hutt.

We've never come across any trouble although it may have lower income families. A lot of that is to do with the very small industries in Wairarapa.

Again I would have no worries moving here. If you speak to any number of families who live here they wouldn't move from Featherston now. Also quite a few of them have returned to raise their families. Which is a good sign.

[sizzlingbadger]

Why not compare the murder rate from the town they lived in back the UK to Featherston ? I'm sure it will make them feel a lot safer (assuming they from the UK)

[Avalon]

Actually that had also occured to me! (Luton as it happens)

And it sound like this is the same case I heard about.

My friend would like me to pass on her dearest thanks - the panic has subsided and with any luck she will soon be over here.

Hugs