PLANT A TREE!

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 9

PLANT A TREE!

AN OLD GARDENER'S REGRET

HISTORIC TREES DESTROYED

(By "Sylvius.") i'ifty yciira ago Mr. Ellis Howe, still it hale and hearty resident of Wellington mill in permanent daily employment, was second gardener in tlio Government i liouso grounds (now tho Parliamentary : Buildings grounds) at llio time when Sir : Lieorgo iiowoii was Governor oi' is'cw ; Zealand. Tho writer wishes to associ- : ate his iinino with the present tree-plant--1 ing season, for Air. Howe, still a great • lover of iiees, litis certain regrets whicb ■ are oxpivssivo enough to be of value at | u time when every thoughtful person who • owns a strip of land, however small. ; should bo thinking of planting a tree (or j mnny of tliem), in order to beautify the I city and gradually obliterate the barren ! aspect of tho placo. i With thoughts that trail back half a ■ century into tho gathering mists of tho history of Wellington, Mr. Rowo is inclined to brcomo ironical when people speak of tree-planting in Wellington as . an aid to beautitication. , "Tree-planting!" said he. "I suppose j it's all very well to talk about that way I of beautifying Wellington, but it's my i belief that inoro trees are cutdownthan.

'! are planted each year. When there's ■ ! nny now building to bo erected or clenr- ; ' in«j made, they simply hack down tho ; (roes aa though they were valueless—as I ; though others could he grown somewhere ; else- to tako their' place in no time. ' Then on top of that comes all this talk ■of tree-planting. look at the Town . Belt! Why, if the B.elt had been planlj"«l at the same time aa tho Government i planted the Botanical Gardens—it was i tho gcnoral Government that planted ; those splendid pine groves in the gardens j — imagine what the appearance of WelI lington would be to-day! It would bo a i garden of a place. Now thero is only i one place in Wellington where you can | slep off tho .main streets and son a bit jof green nnd some flower-beds. Tnat is tho grounds of Parliamentary Buildings. ; Otherwise you have to go up to New- ! town or Tinakori Eoad. In Christchurch [it is very different. You only have to ( walk a few yarcjs to find a squaro nicely i turfed and with fine trees to give shado jon tho warm summer days. And then ; thero are the banks of tho Avon—always I green and beautiful. Auckland, too, is j more fortunate than Wellington. Whero i would you find hero anyono to give .£IOOO i towards beautifying the city: Yet look '. at what Sir John Campbell, Mr. Arthur | Myers, and others have done for Auckland— given lands worth many thousands jof pounds so that the city might be j beautiful for all time." ! Tho reference to tho Pariiamantary j Buildings grounds reminded Mr. Eowo of ; what, in his opinion, wa3 akin to sacri- ! lego committed there. When ho was I second gardener -in Sir George Bowen's ! time, the late Duke of Edinburgh visited j AVollinglon in 11.M.5. Galatea, and one I of tho events connected with that vi6it | was tho planting by the Duke of six I trees in the tben Government Houso grounds. All nourished save one—a totara—and grew into fine, handsome trees, particularly two Norfolk Island pines and a Wellingtonia gigantioa, yet all had been cut down savo one tree—a pine—which stands near tho southern end of tho presont (old) Parliamentary Building. Colonel Wakefield, ono of tfte founders of Wellington, also planted a tree in the same grounds, and Mr. Eowo remembers clearly the agitation of his son, Mr. Felix Wakefield, when it was proposed to cut down that tree in order to build over tho spot the kitohon c.l th>i new (now tho old) Government House, and through his representations to tho Government, tho plans of tho building, were altered 60 that tho treo could bo presorved. Yot sinco then that Jiobio tree had been cut down, and when he last visited tho grounds ho saw its stump level with the ground, between tho old (present) and new Parliamentary Builldings. Mr. Eowo also believes that the prosent King (Georgo V). planted iomo trees when in Wellington, but whether they iiave been permitted to live (in thin age of ljoautification) he was not sure. Tho old gar. dencr holds that tree-planting was and is a capital way of memorialising tho visits -to AVellington of people of note, nnd one that should be fostered by tho municipal authorities. If tho praotico was revived, and tho tres given propei attention, and were labelled, an iuterest would be steadily fostered in their wellbeing and in tree-planting generally. Pep.hap 3 tho need for private trce-plnnt-ing- is more urgent at present than in normnl times, as the City Council can. not bo expected to expend largo sums when thoro are such demands unou tho rovenuo as exist owing to the oxigoncies of war. During- tho past year tho sum of £UU 17s. 3d. was Bpent under tho heading of "forestry," an amount which only accounts \ for tiio wages of half a dozen men engaged in tbo nurseries, and iu planting some- of the reserves and waste places. 'frae-planting is everyone's work, and the joy ono gets from seeing tho trunks tliickon and the branches spread out "as tho seasons creep along the years" in amplo compensation for the little labour involved,