TREE-PLANTINC.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 523, 2 June 1909, Page 4

TREE-PLANTINC.

Siiy-Since I wrote last, 'several other cor- I respondents have written. Mr. Henry 'f Wright referred to the way the trees haS I been .mutated in NowtownPark. I did not . know that at the. time I wrote. I have i since visited the Park. It is most lament- J t hcy )WTO becn llß( >bed about and all their beauty spoilt. A few years ago there was; as far as I remember, I a belt or trees along tho bottom. They gavo I some shelter; those have all been removed j and some native bushes planted, nvhich J bushes have been chopped into such an Ugh, , shape that a blind man might havo done * 'ii A, rees , on the eastern sido havo had I all the fewer boughs out off; it has the cfrect that there is no shelter.- If you go along thore is a cold wind blowing all alone under the trees. There is, as far as I can see, no earthly reason for this except wanton ignorance. I have never seen tho like anywhere.' I have- never seen such wanton n vandalism and such dense want of any per- t ception of the natural beauty of trees or „ shrubs, and I may say that I'am fairly „ familiar with all the public gardens and do- « mains in the Dominion from the Bluff to the ? Bay of Islands. I oannot conceive how the £ chairman; of the reserve, my friend, Coun- "i cillc-r John Luke, did not see it (unless ho „' went .'along with his 1 head in a bag). " It is to bo sincerely hoped that now public ?, attention has been called to this by the t press .that this will not occur again. But ? to refer to the subject of,planting our re- f serves. I notice in an interesting letter „' from Mr. James M'Dowcl that-in 1827 the £ bush on the hills all round the' harbour" came f? down to the water's edge. Now, Dr. Now- , man, when canvassing for. the Mayoralty, suggested a very good scheme for. planting Z and one which would • mako our hflls look +i very pretty and natural. The difference be- w tween what Dr. Newman suggested and what f is usually done is this: when we plant, every Ic tree is put in a line, so they grow up with S lanes between looking like so many rows of 5 gigantto bean stalks. By planting "in clumps li you get what Nature does, and a much 01 more yaned effect. Now I. havo for several 1? years been trying to get the City Council to u plant with wattle. I still push that pro- 5 pe-sal to plant all tho hills with tho golden *" wattle. My proposal combines utility as well re as beanty. In some eight years the trees co would return a revenue.' This dees not in ot any way .conflict with the proposal which tho ot present Mayor suggested, when on the Mayoral campaign. , Tho wattle plantation on the Waikato by the Government is thinned out at about seven years old.' The wood makes, splendid fuol, something b'ko o \i rata; the bark is valuable for tanning; tho at seed as I understand is put in with a drill, R< and the trees then seed themselves. Even a if there is a fire youne wattles como np co thick again. Those who havo ever, been t,( through a wattle plantation when the trees th are covered with golden-coloured fragrant on blossoms need no word of mine in approcia- ¥5 tion of a wattle plantation. As to theutility side, the Minister for Labour said recently JL that. the wattle bark plantation had pro- £r duced good results. ■They had about 150 f r( tons of wattlo bark worth about £1000. Tho an wattle* grown thore is worth 10s. per ton Sti moro than in Australia. an The value of the wattle bark for tannery r °< purjposes is shown by an account of a dopu- tni tatwn of tanners and leather morchants who tei recently waited on tho Victorian Minister ?et The Minister'stated ho had about 3500 acres ? w of black feather-loaf golden wattlo, pruned, &', oe&ned, and protected by fire breaks. B* „, *ides tJua thoro.u a good, deal of naturaljw

■wattle country. The output from reserves last year was 3000 tons, worth £8 ss. a ton, »,»»? had to import from Tasmania, g? u ™ x Arrica. Cape Colony, and other places JobO tons of ■'■wattle bark. Ho also stated that if they agreed to purchase at a fixed "■nimurn price, ho was villing to plant 11,000 more acres, at the rate of 2000 acres per annum. 1 It will' thus be clearly seen that what I nave been advocating is. the planting of trees that, white they would make our city beautiful, would have a sound commercial value for the bark for tannery purposes. Other trees could bo planted in among tho wattle. Tho proporty of tho wattle of seeding all round would form that growth which seems/essential for trees in the shapo of what is always found in the bush, an outer belt of scrub, without which, it seoms, nativo bush cannot bo preserved.—l am, etc.,- , • SAMUEL BROWN. May 29. ■ "...