NEW ZEALAND ATTENTION!

Hokitika Guardian, 4 September 1929, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND ATTENTION!

At a recent meeting of the English Roads Beautifying Association a letter was received from Mr Hurbert Morrison Minister of Transport, in which lie said: “All those who have to watch -no growth of new roads and the ruthless spread of the town must wish ‘God-speed’ to your association, wilder skilled guidance the cost ol making a read beautiful, may be less than “Lie cost of making it ugly. In any-event, what a. small sum is needed to adorn a road as compared with the cost of building it! It is not unusua. lor a new arterial road to cost £50,990 per mile. For one per cent oi this amount—£soo per mile—or even less, much can be done to deck the roadside with greenery and blossom, to tne ioy and gladness of unnumbered travellers. We must remember, too, —at foreigners and visitors are api to judge us by our roadside vice.' rather than our fireside virtues, the | former being sometimes more conspicuous. For a display of enlightened civic spirit no ground offers such advantages as the roadside. I hope that in many of the greater road schemes which are now in progress and in pros pect the utmost attention will be paid to laris aspect of road planning,” Colonel Ashley, as the former Minister of Transport, expressed the association’s thanks to Mr Morrison for his charming letter, and said he welcomed the spirit in which his successor had shown his appreciation of their beneficient association. Not onh should the association keep firmly in view the absolute necessity of planting trees', shrubs and flowers by the s:des of the new arterial roads, bui they should try to impress on the local authorities that when widening old roads they should leave as many old trees standing as possible.