LOSS OF TREES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26616, 12 November 1947, Page 6

LOSS OF TREES

PLANTATION AT ROXBURGH

R.S.A. DISCUSSES POSITION

The Public Works Department’s proposal to extend the Roxburgh railway to the site of the Coal Creek dam through the association’s plantation of trees was discussed at a meeting of the Dunedin branch executive of the Returned Services’ Association last night. The president, Mr M. S. Myers was in the chair. Reporting on a visit to Roxburgh by Messrs K. W. Stewart, A. J. H. Jeavons and himself, Mr D. L. Wood said they had inspected the plantation which now consisted of 120,000 young trees. They had been shown where a swathe, three chains wide, was to be cut through the middle of the plantation so that the railway could be built through to Coal Creek to take supplies thdre. Over 12,000 trees would be lost and there would always be the danger of fire caused by sparks from engines. There would need to be some assurance that adequate fire precautions were taken. The question of compensation required consideration also. Mr Wood said he wondered whether the railway could be diverted round the plantation or whether road transport could be used. He pointed out that the scheme which had been put into operation in 1937 was planned to mitigate unemployment at the time and with the long term view of providing funds for the association's work. The association, he said, had reason for concern.

It was decided to approach the department, asking that the afforestation scheme be fully protected. A suggestion that four paths leading to the Cenotaph should be laid down in marble was made, after a letter from the town clerk, Mr R. A. Johnston, was read concerning the rededication of the memorial. Fie forwarded prints showing the existing words on the Cenotaph and the words to be added to commemorate the dead in the recent war. Mr Johnston added that the Mayor was making arrangements with the Governor-General for the ceremony of re-dedicating the memorial during his visit to Dunedin next year.—The prints submitted by Mr Johnston were approved. Mr L. T. Welsh, of the British Foreign Sailors’ Society, outlined the plan for a building in Dunedin, as a memorial to merchant navy men who lost their lives in the war and suggested that the R.S.A. should support the proposal so that it could be recognised as a war memorial and a Government subsidy could be gained.— The president said that the housing and rehabilitation of returned men were the association’s main interest and it had not given much thought to the war memorial proposals, apart from the re-dedication of the Cenotaph. The association would do everything it could to help the scheme outlined by Mr Welsh.