ARBOR DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 263, 5 August 1942, Page 4

ARBOR DAY

Plans For Celebration Today CENTRAL PARK PLANTING The official celebration of Arbor Day in Wellington will take place in Central Park at 2.30 this afternoon, when an avenue of European limes, extending about 100 yards from below the pond toward ..the main gates, will be planted. Speakers will be the mayor of Wellington, Mr. Hislop, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry, and the Governqr-General, Sir Cyril Newall. Trees will be planted toy the speakers, and in addition by the following: Lady Newall; the American Minister, Brigadier-General P. J. Hurley; the High Commissioner for the ' United Kingdom, Sir Harry Batterbee; the High Commissioner for Canada, Dr. W. A. Riddell; the chairman the Wellington Harbour Board, Mr. W. H. Price; the president of the Wellington Horticultural Society, Mrs. Knox Gilmer; a representative of the Wellington Beautifying Society, Mr. H. S. B. Fletcher; and a representative of the Royal Institute of Horticulture, Mr. Hope B. Gibbons. Members of the public are invited to be present. The Wadestown Cottage Garden and Beautifying Society will conduct a ceremony in Keith Izard Park at 11 o’clock this morning, when a small grove of kowhai will be planted by pupils of the Wadestown SchooL This will be an extension of the Kowhai Grove commenced last Arbor Day. The Mayor of Wellington, Mr. Hislop, will plant the first tree. Under the auspices of the Wellington Beautifying Society, pupils of the Worsen Bay and Seatoun schools will plant pohutukawa near the foreshore at Worsen Bay at 11 o’clock this morning.

There will be a ceremony at Wellington College at 11.45 this morning, when Mr. L. McKenzie, a member of the College Board of Governors, will plant a pohutukawa tree in the grounds. The Wellington Education Board recently circularized its 'head teachers aud school committees calling attention to the observance of Arbor Day and expressing its desire that no opportunity should be loot of impressing on the ’ children the importance of tree-planting. There will be no free distribution of trees for planting by the board this year, and each school has been asked to make its own arrangements for their free supply or purchase. If no school ceremony is arranged, schools have been instructed to co-operate fully with the arrangements made by local bodies and organizations.- Children of such schools in the Wellington area will therefore participate in the ceremony at Central Park, and those in the Hutt Valley will attend their local ceremony.