WITH VERDURE CLAD.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 91, 19 April 1911, Page 3

WITH VERDURE CLAD.

FAR-SEEING CITY-BUILDERS. WHAT THEY DID FOR CHRISTCHURCH. (D.W.) The spirit of the hills is action, that of the lowlands rej«>ie. We shall find that tho love of nature, wheieever it- has existed, has been a faithful and sacred element of feeling,— ltuskin. IL was the fall of the leaf; autumn was in the air. Though the grass and many of the trees had kept their richness of summer greenery, still there was a pungent fragrance of dying leaves, and the Emoke of rubbish fires. Coming from treeless Wellington, from tht> stark brown hills so fiercely -windswept; from the sightless day patches, to the city nestling in the heart of the Canterbury Plains, on& could not but be struck with the rural aspect, the uniform tranquillity of the Southern town. Not. as it. Wellington, "the beauty of undisturbed stones and solitary mountains." but the peaceful and sylvan beauty of park and garden and tree. TREE-PLANTING INSTINCT. Wise in their generation, the city fathers of those early days, who -wrestttt their homes with heavy toil from the dessrc pain and flax swamp, pictured in their mind's eye the future landscape, and with a discriminating e}o planned accordingly. TJiey were- imbued with English ideals ; they were strongly gifted .with the rural feeling, the passion was inherent with them. Denied the natural advantages of situation, still there- "was space, and they could grow trees — and they did. They did more than that, they made a, science of the cult of trees. LANES CF GREEN ENCHANTMENT. T Very tranquilly the town travelled along the road to beauty, but it travelled far. To-day there eve squares laid out picturesquely -with refreshing verdure, and bordered with the tender and graceful foliage of chestnut, ash, and sycamore. Shady avenues of plane — grown into magnificent" trees — sturdy oak and chestnut, form the cit-y's snood. Moorhouse-avenue, of plane and sycamore, a fairy lane of enchantment, is one of the finest in the world for its size. Jn'the very heart of the city, just within the Cathedral enclosure, a chestnut tree, all aswing at this season with prickly green balls, hiding the sweet brown nut, raises a lovely symmetrical form amid the dust and clamour. Not a stone's throw away silvery aspens shake their leaves in ths pale autumn sunshine — as much at home as if in forest precincts. A magnificent specimen of a copper beech, a wonderful temple of tossing foliage, may be found in Armagh-street, by those who care to look for it, and everywhere tall aromatic bluegums fling their healing odours abroad. To the north, south, east, an 3 wpst. and to the far horizon, you will find strong and goodly trees, cherished and trained, and cautiously jjruned. They are not planted, and then left to a cold chance. , "WHERE THE COOL GARDENS DREAM." Every spot capable of vegetation — there is the pomt — has its plot of grass, flowerbed, or tree, arranged ivith an eye to landscape gardening. What might Wellington not do— with its natural advantages — in this direction! The land is uniformly level, and would be monotonous vy*;rG it 'Hot for this love of beautiful lotm nn»l iiarmunious landsrape. Excursions made through the suburbs, Opawa, Fendallon, Papanui, Dallington, revealed rosy orchard boughs^ golden quince, hazel and walnut, giving their largesse — every sterilo! spot converted into loveliness.' Trails' of Virginia creeper, forming exquisite harmonic of colour, in nearly every garden, pouring like showers of rubies over roof and fence. And the quiet Avon, a mere streamlet-, winds in and out between brimming banks of .grten enamel, overhung here with weeping willow, guarded thero .between stiff ranks of pollard, fringed with reed, sweet mint, or musk. Sometimes long batallione of poplars of a great height, tit this season cloaked in cloth of gold, inarcu along th* raver side under a ing of lapis lazuli. AUTUMN IN BAGLEY PARK. Bui the priceless gem in this tree-stud-ded city is Hagley Park, a broad space of tender repose. There autumn was crowned with splendour, each leaf transmitting a j;lory of rose aud amber. Nothing could bo more imposing than the wide vistas of arching branch and leafage; tha wide spacej, with here and theie a clump of pine — the homo of a thousand singing birds; the shadowy avenues of pine and oak — strong and goodly trees all; the rounded bosses, the delicate traceries, th© whispers of innumerable falling leaves, the shadowy paths winding through green dells as bosky green as the fair forest of Arden. Groups of silver beech, their trunks embroidered with arabesques of silver, each tree an immense emerald ruby or topaz ; the quiet shadows linked among the trco boles, the whole held by a mossy silence, restful to tho jaded mind and spirit. And piled up on the plain, far away, rising against the sky the craggy crests of ths Southern Alps, in their everlasting winter garments, form a noble background. ALIENS ALL. But there is something that strikes the most casual visitor. Something which costs the more thoughtful a sigh ! These armies, rank and file, of strong and goodly treeg^ in park, or garden, or avenue, English trees in inexhaustible variety, are aliens all. Where are the true inheritors of the soil? The totara and ake ake were banished long ago. On the Riccarton-road, it is true, theie are a few acres of bush — known locally as Dean's Bush — preserved through the large public spirit- that has characterised so many of the citizens of Christchurch ; and here and there, in odd corners of tho town, a whispering cabbage tiree cr crimson kov/hai murmur together of far-off years and lost companions, In Latimer-square. the gates of St. John's Church are guarded by two magnificent trees, the bln«k ake ake, its 'leaves not unlike the English mistletoe, solitary remnants of past grandeur, turning reproachful faces to the invaders in the square. The old could still' be bound in harmony with the new. "CURFEW." But. with the autumn, it was time to go. The peevish oast wind came swooping down, scattering the leaves of crimson. The tall cathedral spire looking down with a protecting air on the surrounding scene; the cawing rooks wheeling in great circles round the. swaying platforms of the blr.egums. the melody of the chimes ringing out through Ohe rising miFts, all common features of Enqlitli landscape, evince a sweet home i«?ling, a calm and settled security.

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