CORRESPONDENCE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 November 1916, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

PROFESSOR WRAGGE ON BEUTIFV/ING HELENSVILLE,

TO THE EDITOR

I Sir,—l am very pleased to note that at last there is some intention of beautifying Helensville by tree-planting. The place in every way lends itself to such an enterprising scheme, and the climate is particularly favourable for semi-tropical and even tropical growth, ard if I were " chief boss \' of this town I w»uld convert the place into a second Honolulu, and that in a faw years. The streets and waste corners should be planted with avenues and clumps of lovely palms, and the giant Abyssinian banana (a most useful plant economically) should be conspicuous in all its tropic beauty. Among the palms I should hay Australia, the noble cabbage palm of Illawara; Washingtonia filifera, the cotton palm of Southern California ; Phoenix sylvestris, the wild date of India ; Phoenix reclinata the elegant curved date of South' Africa ; chamoeTops excelsa, the fan palm of Japan; sabal umbellifera, the great fan palm of Florida ; and very especially the exquisite Cocos plumosa, or feather palm of Brazil; the Kentias of Lord Howe Island, and Seaforthia elegans, the wellknown bangalow palm of New South Wales and Queensland. All these and many others will thrive to perfection at Helensville, and the drive leading to the Hot Springs could become famous like the palm avenue at Rio de Janiero, and would draw tourists from far and near. The palms enumerated m.ay all be seen \n perfect health at my beautiful tropical garden in Birkenhead, gr.qwing luxuriantly in the open air, where even the banana bears a luscious fruit that one can pluck and eat direct frqm the tree; wlu'le the Abyss,inia,n h,anana grows w-ith leaves feet lQng $nd three feet broad, the circumference of the trunk at the base being over eight feet. It is high time that your local authorities woke up in the matter of tree-planting and beautifying. Now—and until the end of November —is the time and the proper season, owing to the genial moisture, for all exotic planting! and the plants named" will accommodate themselves to' Helensville, right in the open, as' a broody hen to a nest'of hay. If wisijedj I will later deal 'with' the economic use.s of the giant'banana and others, wH,ich qu'gh.t to be grown very extensively'for. commercial purposes in Northern New Zealand, let alone fpr its exceeding beauty. lam doing all I'can in the beautifying of Auckland an,d Suburbs, and in thY b,e,st interests qf tl(is Northern'country, and dq' nq't wish, tq see IfelensvilhVlast iq the' race.,—;l am, etc., -' Gi^ME^T L.. WRAqqe;. Birkenhead, 3-11-16,