NATURE—AND MAN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 33, 23 February 1937, Page 13

NATURE—AND MAN

Easy Beauty at EveryboJy's Wish (Edited by Leo Fanmng.) A stolid member of a town board in the North Island remarked at a meeting reoently that "trees and garden plots. were a doubtful benefit.'3 Of course, one would not be more eager to argue with such a soUlless person thaii with a mental patient who said that the sun revolved around the earth. The case is merely mentioned to mdicate the pitiable plight of those individuals — a smali minority— who are blind to the beauty of nature. Pausing for a few moments while 1 was choosing a suitable adjective for that benighted local-bodyite I looked out at the queen of my garden— a nobie red gum. "What! An Australiani And you are always urging us to plant more native trees.35 a reader may interject. Yet, dear reader, a beautitul representative of neighbour Australia. But let me explain. My two pohutukawas have just finished fiowering. When their l.ast crimson petals Were falling "the gum begaii to open its rdby chalices to the great delight of white-eyes. They had enjoyed many feasts on the neetared bloom of the pohutukawas, and were thankful for the new treat. How lovely the niinble little green twittereys looked as they fossicked in those honeyed eUpsl I am sure they did me more good than I had done for them. Well, friends, it is very easy to have that kiild of beauty by you. My seotion, although "large5' for Wellington city, is only 40 feet by 175 feet4 Less thau seventeen years ago it was # a rough piece of hillside, overrun with

gorae, broom, bnar, fennei and otner weeds. On the back boundary to-day is a nobie rampart of native greenery— a Karaka (which hecame a parent two years ago) two pohutukawas and two ngaios. Onl terrace is hedged with r pink manuka and another with red manuka. Other natives are three koWhais, about a dozen matipos, a treefern, a reWa-rewa, a lance wood, a rimu (red pine )and a kahikatea (white pine). It costs very little to bring up theSe good conipanions— a, cost which seems the merest trifle for the immeasurable pleasure which they give, and yet a money-making friend, a materialist, who says he can't be bothered with a garden tells me that I have beefl shrewd. He assures me that the wellgrown trees have added at least £50 to the value 'of my section. tt is delightful to have- the opinion of a keen business man, who prides hirhself on his lack or Scarcity of sentiment, that the cult of lattdscape beauty can be very profitahle. Let us go back to the selection of , trees for planting this year. Natives

first, of course, but it is well to give a fair deal to worthy trees of other ■ countries, especially those which quickly grow into food-yielders for , native birds. Various speoies of colourful Australian gums come into .flower during different periods, and offer a succession of sweet fare fdr native birds. But for the love of George and Georgina, Patrick and Patricia, don't have higgledy-piggledy mixtureB of natives and exotics. For example, my Australian eUcalypt Btands alone on one terrace, where she cannot sneer at the natives not be sneered at by them. Indeen she gives the right kind of foreground to the more vivid greens of the natives on another terrace. A Chat with Mf Gorse The chairman of the Manawatu Uounty Council has said that gorse has spread from private land so thickly on the Bidea of some roads in the district that it is interfering with tralfic. Therefore, the council haB decided to send circulars to ratepayers "ordering them to take steps to grub out all noxious weeds on the road frontages of their properties.53 Well, after reading that statemcnt 1 went jnto a reverie, and imagined 1 heard Mr Gorse chuckling. "Grub me out!55 he laugbed. "Thfey have their own chance and Buckley5,s and the other £ellow5s — the man who struck D5Hara. i rather like the chaps who come along with grubberB. They make a very nice seed-bed for my children, espeoially if they burn some of myself there. Usually they leavo enough of me to let me get a fresh start in life, and up I bob, as frolicsome as ever. Messages from members of my family in and about Wellington teljL Me that they are amused by the City Council and private land owners, ' They grub away year after year, and up we come again. They could shade Us to death with quickgrowing taupata, Ngaio«jmd other native trees, but, bless you they seem to prefer spendjng twenty times as much on grubbing, which doesu't set us back for very long.55 Friends, meditato deeply on those words of Michael Fairless in ''The Eoadmender'5 "It is the simple note of familiarity that is wanting in us: that by whick we link world with world. Once, years ago, 1 sat by the bedside of a dying man in a wretched g&rret in ihe East End. He wasx en« tirely jgnorant, entirely quiescent, and efttirely uninterested. The minister of a neighbduring ehapel came to see him and spoke to him at some length of the need for repentance and joys of heaven. After he had gone my friend lay staring restlessly at the mass of decrepit broken chftnney pots which made his horizon. At last he spoke, and there was a. new note in his voice: — 'E said as 5ow there were golding streets in them parts. I ain5t no ways particular Wot they5re made of, but it'll feel natutal like if there' s chimleys too'. "The sun stretched a sudden finger and painted the chimney pots red and gold against the smoke-dimmed sky, and with his face alight with surprised relief my friend died."