A WIDE APPEAL

Evening Post, Issue 30, 4 August 1936, Page 11

A WIDE APPEAL

MINISTER GRATIFIED

.. Gratification was expressed today by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) at the result' of a wide appeal made for a practical commemoration of Arbor Day tomorrow. Mr. Parry said that communications from many parts of both islands of the Dominion had reached him testifying to there being a greater working interest shown now than ever before by different sections of the people in all that. Arbor Day signified. With the evident enthusiasm with which the spirit of Arbor Day was being ushered in this year, the Minister predicted great headway being made in the reafforestation and beautiflcation -work long overdue in certain of the cities and provincial towns of the Dominion. "Once the importance of a desirable and necessary work is grasped by New Zealanders," said Mr. Perry, "they will see it safely and creditably through to the end. I feel Ihat the message sent

to different quarters of New Zealand pointing to the necessity of protecting our native bush and to the. need of the- replanting of barren areas with suitable specimens of this country's fine flora, has carried an appeal which has not fallen on unreceptive ears. ENCOURAGING MESSAGES. "From local bodies and native bushloving citizens in many parts of the . Dominion have come advices of their . energetic interest in Arbor Day com- , memoration tomorrow. These messages are all very gratifying and encouraging. ■ They inspire. a new hope in the minds ■ of the true lover of our glorious native , bush—that at last something big and practical is on the way towards the , protection of New Zealand's native bush and in reafforestation and beau'ei- • fication work. Nothing but admiration ■ could be expressed to these far-sighted . citizens—men and women-^for the work they have voluntarily set themselves. They are doing a work of great community: value and their reward, quite apart from their natural love of the bush, will come to them by that knowledge. I am convinced that the . spirit now engendered .in the fostering of tree planting and tree protection will spread in depth and breadth —will spread to the children through their parents—as a work essential and important to the nation in keeping with the' enterprise of the times."