DIFFICULT TO BEAUTIFY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 926, 20 September 1910, Page 4

DIFFICULT TO BEAUTIFY.

GOVERNMENT. HOUSE GROUNDS. ■ Workmen ! employed on the: new Government House. grounds : are. .finding "beautification" rather difficult. A.quondam swampy'■ patch s near the main entrance in Sussex Square has been shaped into garden beds,) but'.-' tbo general char-; acter of the earth is an unpromising clay, which has dried/into extremely •■; hard lumps' under sun and wind.' A'niattempt is being made to temper" the clay with soil- and bonedust, but the season : is -late for spch. work. The banks on' either. 6ide of the main drive have been turfed to a height of about four feet. The bank above was planted about two months ago, but the young trees seem'! to have lost heart, and the majority'of them have •de-'' clined to take root in such .a,wind-swept' spot. Willow stumps have been planted along, the wire fence : that separates, the drive from the"- grounds !of Wellington College. If they grow they will doubtless look very well in four.or five years' time. The sentry-box is now situated half-way up the drive in a bend in the road which forms the ■ nearest. approach to what might be ,called .a: shelter. E.N-Z.A. men" are V detailed - for .'duty here —one at a time. ; The grounds immediately surrounding ■'." the house are looking, very. well. Specially' good work has been done in turfing the banks and.laying out the lawns. Tho old asphalt tennis court has been picked up and removed, and the area is now' being neatly turfed in conformity with the surroundings. A somewhat insignificant summer house has been erected at one end ofthe lawn, and behind is a.refroshing clump-of tall trees. The flower beds on the southern side are doing as well as can be expected, but it will probably ;bo long before they will look really well. The aged concrete fountains which used to be the centre piece in the courtyards of the demolished asylum have quite a hoary aspect, rather out of; keep!ing with tho pronounced 'newness of the State residence..

Cossack is a word of Asiatic! origin, meaning a highwayman on horseback.