The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JUNE 14, 1901. BEAUTIFYING.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 132, 14 June 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JUNE 14, 1901. BEAUTIFYING.

At the mooting of the Borough Council on Tuesday night, Councillor Lysnar gave some hard hits to the local Beautifying Association, jfrhich he said was practically dead, and. was not to bo entrusted with work in connection with the recreation ground. Whether or not these remarks are , j ust, it is not. necessary to enter into here; they certainly come as a surprise to a great many people. Our purpose just now is to refer to the way in which the efforts being made in our neighbouring town are noticod, “ A Model Municipality ” is the heading which one of the leading journals in. the colony, the Christchurch Press, gives to an article dealing with Napier. The writer commences: “At a timo when civic life in New Zealand seems at length to be awakening from the long torpor —when an extended franchise, keen-fought elections, ambitious schemes for city improvement, and patient labors of beautify-' ing.societies are in this place and that giving proofs of revivified interest, it may not be amiss to draw attention to the admirable example of enlightened progress afforded by a modestlittlotownin the North Island,” It is then explained that Napier is the. town referred to. Nature (states the Press) has done much for this pretty little town, situated on the straggling hill, and tapering shinglepit, which Cook mistook for an island. Standing on Bluff Hill on a . sunny day—and most of its days are sunny —there stretch to west and north of you the rolling uplands of Petano, •and the grass-class reaches of Green Meadows; to the east the blue waters of the Bay, not always, pacific, with its shimmering line of curving shore; to the south the silvor thread of the Tutaekuri winds among the greens and browns of the sedge-grown lagoon. On the spurs around you porch the villas of the townsfolk, not without architectural graces of their owm ; below you, on the shingle spit, are the shop and cottages which, in spite of the miserably narrow streets, form a group less dingy and commonplace than the averago of Now Zealand towns. Of these advantages the Napier folk have not been slow to make the best use. Along the shore of the bay they have built a retaining wall of concrete, and behind its protection stretches the magnificent “ Marine Parade,” of several miles in length. For twenty years they have experimented in planting it. “ Gums ” and “ Pinus Insignia,” English trees and native shrubs, were tried, planting after planting, and resulted in failure. But they never gave in ; and now, after years of. experiment, they have succooded in fringing tho Marino Parade for noarly two miles of its length with North pines, which are hardy enough to thrive in tho . briny spray with which the sea. breezes so liberally sprinkle them. These experiments in' tree planting might well bo taken a note of by Gisborne people. Then as to the old swamp. Twenty years ago a huge swamp, only a few chains from the main thoroughfares, spread smells

and flies and fever through the town. This has all been reclaimed and built upon, and where as boys they paddled in their skiffs and fished for eels, fathers now walk with their childi-eu under an avenue of majestio bluegums, which have reached forty to fifty feet in height in half that number of years. Tho great lagoon to the west of the town is now being won from a swampy waste of weeds—not by the labour of shovels and pickaxes, but by the aid q£ nature —the Tutaekuri has been “ harnessed ” to the work of reclamation, and the lagoon is so rapidly silting up that in a few year 3 more it will give hundreds of acres of dairy-lands to the tefWn. Napier itself is a model of neatness, The main streets are as clean as a tennis court. Tire squares are laid

out in trim garden walks, and though it is quite a small place, it has probably more publicise its, in its squares, on the parade, aud on the hill, than the largest town in the colony. The Press then explains that the good works have not been done by radical reformers, nor are they the result of change and agitation. Prom the point of view of tho Badical, Napier would probably be considered antediluvian. The Mayor who has just retired, ccmpied the office for fourteen years in succession, and only once, if we remember rightly, had anyone the temerity to oppose him, fine-crusted old “'lory” though he was. Even now T , when a contest for the Mayoralty led to ‘ great excitement and vigorous

enrolment under the extended franchise, and when as many as twentyfive candidates aspired to municipal honors, only two of the twelve councillors returned were new men. "We heartily congratulate the people of Napier on having done so well. Gisborne may well profit by the. example. It has the natural facilities which should enable it to beat Napier in time, and it is hoped the Council and Beautifying Association will cordially work together for the improvement of the appearance of the town.