PARKS AND WALKS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1924, Page 13

PARKS AND WALKS

*y y> ISITORS will enjoy their quiet spells / 7 as well as their busy hours in Wel- / lington, if they take those quiet spells % in the right places. The city has many parks and reserves, even though residents in some parts of the town may complain that those who live in other town divisions have a double share while they go short. Thirty-four are upon the official list, with the Town Belt mentioned elsewhere, but not all those reserves are as yet fully dressed out in trees and shrubs according to plan; while others, the best of all, are dressed out in the plan of Nature herself. When people in Wellington speak of "The Gardens," for instance, they usually mean what are officially called the Botanic Gardens, an area of 63 acres,* somewhat hilly, but by its many serpentine walks appearing very much more than 63 acres. It consists of combined bush and untamed bush and •well-Cultivated sections in ' which exotics from all parts of the world are to be recognised. Unofficially* the Gardens are the pleasantest place in all Wellington to go to, wet or fine. On a wet day—not during half a hurricane, of course—these Gardens have a charm that they possess under no other conditions. For then the scents of the fallen leaves and rotting wood in the wild part blend with the perfume of the damp earth. Birds are then particularly active and most entertaining, especially if one is still and talks in a low voice. Birds are protected in the Gardens, and they know it. Unfortunately the shy indigenous birds are not common in the Gardens, as the tui, for instance; but in the dusk the morepork, or ruru, will be seen, •with broad outstretched wings—seen (like good children), but not heard, so silent are the movements of this raider of sparrow perches. The rare shining cuckoo has also been reported in the Gardens. Thrushes and blackbirds abound, and make the groves in the Gardens melodious with their .songs. . Sometimes a kingfisher may be Been, just one, but that very rarely. Sparrows solve the housing problem by roosting in the. tall pines, and it is these that the ruru raids. Starlings frequent the Gardens, and their well-known insectivorous tastes ensure them a welcome. Chaffinches and goldfinches go there sometimes.. Nature Tamed and Wild. It is not so much in the birdlife of the Gardens, however, that their charm lies. It is in the excellent way in which the formal is blended with the primitive that attracts. There is much for the botanist to see too; but the lay-out is not on the scientific principles observed at Buitenzorg in Java, or the famous Gardens at Kew in London. Never-

theless, visitors will see growing side by side in perfect amity the maples and flowering cherries of Japan, the sumach of the United States, the stately waratah of Australia and its graceful and fragrant wattles, also the red and other lovely flowering eucalypts. Curious trees from China, including the Breath of Heaven, and rhododendrons originally from the Himalayas, with rare orchids from the dim, dark aisles of Amazonian jungles, have, too; their places in the Gardens. The great Douglas firs and the redwood trees are not unrepresented. Nearby them can be seen the lady-like "birks" of which Bobbie Burns sang so sweetly, together with the scarlet-berried mountain a3h of the Highlands. English oaks, beeches, and elms have their honoured places in the scheme. Hoses in the season are usually a strong feature of the Gardens. Those to whom the Queen of Flowers is more than a mere name will find many rarities here Irish Elegance, Hugh Dickson, Fire-flame, Eed Letter Day, Antoine Revoke, General M'Arthur, and Madame Edouard Herriot, names that mean so much to growers and

THE CITY'S QUIET PLACES

fanciers, but are just roses, beautiful in form, colour, and perfume to others. These are all to be found, when the roses are at their best, the names being on the labels at the foot of each plant. Lordly thistles, of the edible and highly decorative sort, will be found in the flower-beds to gratify the Scot, and, for the matter of that, a clump of the real Shamrock could be produced if the Curator were asked for it. The Welsh visitor will have to go to the vegetable garden for his national emblem—but it is there.

As to the unique flora of New Zealand, it is very well represented in the Gardens. A

young kauri, the most ancient of trees, called in its youth a rika, is to be found without difficulty, overlooking the rose garden. Close by it, too, is the beautiful lace bark tree. The shapely karaka; the ngaio, that looks as if it came out of a landscape painted by some medieval Italian painting; the New Zealand fuchsia, from which the gorgeous flowers known by that name originally came (so it is said) ; and the rangiora, which is said to make cows and horses drunk (not disorderly) in certain seasons, with a hundred other representatives of New Zealand, have honoured positions assigned to them in the Gardens. A Botanical Holiday. For those, who have the time and the inclination to know more about the native trees

and shrubs of New Zealand it will be well if they go with Cockayne's fascinating work, "New Zealand Plants; and Their Story," in their hands. They wiil be able then to turn up in the book most of the New Zealand plant-names to be found in the Gardens, and they will see how many and how "heroic" have been the struggles of so many of our native things to live and to perpetuate their kind. The rockeries in the Gardens contain many quite humble-looking plants that have a most romantic story to tell to the patient listener, using Cockayne's book as a vocabulary. They range from coast plants to Alpine flowers.

Many visitors will naturally find their way to the houses where the begonias and similar hothouse plants are kept in a state of humid warmth that brings out the best in them. The list of beautiful specimens of begonias, gloxinias, and orchids and similar plants shown is far too long for recital here. The only disadvantage of these plant treasuries of grace and beauty is that one cannot stay in the houses for long. Not that there is any attempt

made by the staff of the Gardens to hurry or harry visitors, but because the ways are narrow and the houses are relatively small, and there is no time with a constant stream of other visitors to stand and think and dream of all that these beautfiully fashioned and celestially-tinted blossoms suggest.

In the cool of the fern house botanical visitors will find much to attract their attention ; those who know nothing about the mysteries of ferns will have there a hint of the Garden of Eden before the Fall.

The amateur botanist will perhaps give no more than a passing glance at the herbaceous borders and formal beds of gay flowers and shrubs in flower, but will make for the wild part of the Gardens. Here will be seen, right in the heart of the- city, as it were, remnants of the primeval forest. Tall forest trees have quite disappeared; and the last of the monarchs, a giant matai, fell some winters ago, in the glen; but a young kahikatea, or white pine, self-sown, will be found

near Salamanca road, and it is believed to be the only one. Pukuteas and hinaus, all veryold, show where the forest used to be, but the manuka scrub has mercifully covered the place where the lords of the prime overtopped the humbler growth. Immigrants from other countries are found among the natives, often as protecting them from the too rough embraces of the weather. But all is very wild; it is the forest in miniature ; well pathed, well graded, easily accessible, and quite near to town. The visitor to Wellington should on no account miss the Gardens; in fact, he should say to his host: "Well, what about your Gardens?" The chances are ten to one that the host will reply: "I've not been to the Gardens since ," and will then give some far distant date. It is like that. Residents in a city often see less of its attractions than the people who pass through. In the case of Wellington citizens, with friends to whom they would like to give unalloyed-pleasure during Welcome Week, it is suggested that they take a tram to the Garden gates or drop down upon the Gardens from the Kelburn side, and return by tram. Male visitors from New South Wales will be interested to know that in the Wellington Gardens smoking is not prohibited, as it is in the famous Gardens of Sydney. Newtown Park and Other Gardens. Public-spirited citizens who made a hobby of growing roses and carnations, and thereby afforded great pleasure to thousands at various shows, besides themselves, decided some years ago to beautify Newtown Park. They furnished the plants for a rosery there. The work is a. suitable memorial to some of those citizens Who are now no more. In their season the roses at Newtown Park are a great attraction to visitors, also to residents in the vicinity. The great flat area of the Park i 3 required for sports and parade purposes, but wherever it is possible to plant "gay flower beds in the Park that has been done. Newtown Park is comparatively new, but is fast approaching a settled and mature appearance, as parks go. What a few years ago were but shrubs have now become trees, and sparselyplanted beds have become bushy and thick. The flower-planting has been liberal and well arranged, but there'is still much scope for further decoration of the kind. Central Park is distant but one short section of tram ride from the centre of the city. It is a clever utilisation of extremely broken country, with sharp contour lines. Steep hills and deep gullies alternate ; nevertheless, provision has been made there for playing spaces, and there is a small forest of young eucalypts and other trees in the place of what but a fews years ago were barren, or rather grasscovered, hills. At the foot of the park will be found a very prettily laid-out garden, with winding paths and a little stream running between weedfringed banks to lose itself underground into the harbour. The little park has no particular botanical interest. It never was intended to be more than a pleasant place for people to sit and talk in, for mothers to take their knitting or sewing there and sit among the flowers and keep an eye on their youngsters playing within sight or call. At the same time the Central- Park is a very pleasant contrast for Brooklyn residents to some of the ways that city people have to pass through twice a day going to and coming from their work. The worth of Central Park to those who pass through it daily is not expressible in terms of money, but in terms of health. It is mani-

■festly better to pass through so pleasant a spot, even to see it in a fleeting glance from the tramear, than through depressing sections of city streets with closed shops and boarded, dingy windows, doing duty for dwellings. Central Park is well worth taking a tram ride to see, if only for the skilful engineering work that has been done to make it what it is. The Popular Beaches. At Lyall Bay the surfing is great—genuine surf-board riding with very fair length of breaker run and no end of golden, brown sand to laze on afterward. Island Bay swimmers do not surf; they swim, for there the island Tapu-te-Kangaj to give it its Maori name, breaks down the swell from the Strait and leaves the bay waters with no more than ripples upon the sand. Seatoun has a good stretch of sandy beach, and Evans Bay, nearer the city (reached by a No. 2 car), offers as safe a cooling-off spotmay the. sun shine brightly—as anywhere. Across the Harbour. Across the harbour, say 30 to 35 minutes by the ferry boats, are Day's Bay and Eastbourne. Day's Bay is the city's own seaside resort, although well outside the city boundaries, the whole area, approximately 650 acres, having been acquiied by the Corporation by purchase, assisted by public subscription and Government subsidy, the opportunity being given the city by the generous offer of the former owner, the late Captain W. R. Williams, after whom the park is named. The bush is very fine indeed, with heavy and beautiful timbering within a few hundred yards of the wharf gates, and the several miles of paths and tracks formed, up treefern valleys lower down and through true beech forest ten minutes further on, make hill-climbing and bush-walking pleasant and easy. In addition to the 650 acres of Williams Park, the Corporation has leasehold rights over 200 acres of native bush adjoining. The bathing is excellent, but probably the grass tennis courts and the more recently laid hard courts run sea bathing a hard race for popularity. A commodious pavilion is, built upon the grounds, and half-a-dozen lawns help out picnic parties. Eastbourne, too, offers delightful afternoons and evenings to visitors. Again, the bathing is tip-top, and Muritai Park, just back from the sea shore, is a splendid patch of native bush, wilder, perhaps, than the Day's Bay bush, but for that the more beautiful. More Native Bush. Another very beautiful city park, though comparatively few Wellington people realise its full beauty, is at Khandallah, not more than eight or ten minutes' walk' from the suburban railway station. This area, not so far short of 200 acres, was only recently taken over by the city on the amalgamation of the Borough of Onslow, and as a bush reserve so easy of access it will not easily be outshadowed. From the Hills. However, one need not go far out of the city centre to discover that Wellington has scenic views as well as business view, for there are a dozen vantage points, all easily reached, some by. tramear, others by motor, some by footwork, from which city and harbour are viewed at their best. He who takes the car to Brooklyn is well enough repaid, but after all he does not see

Wellington and he does not see the harbour; he sees a bit of both. The wireless station reached, either by ear or foot along the easy ridge of road from Constable street, though the hill climb direct from Courtenay place is quicker, if the breath holds out, offers a still finer view of city and harbour.