OUR OWN ARE BEST

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 109, 30 December 1931, Page 6

OUR OWN ARE BEST

OUTSIDE OPINION CASE FOR PLANTING N.Z. NATIVE TREES IN PARK AND GARDEN It is Christmastide, and a sign of the times is the adornment of Christmas cards and stationery. with New Zealand floral emblems. Nothing is more beautiful than the native flowers — pohutukawa, clematis, kowhai, koromiko, etc. — and yet all Christmas and New Year illustrated correspondence has, until recently, been embellished with conventional blossoms borrowed from other countries, says a writer in the Wellington "Evening Post." It is no challenge to rose, lily, violet, and other flowers to say that a Christmas card adorned with the clematis, or the pohutukawa, or the kowhai, each in its characteristic colour, is a welcome addition to the many-patterned stationery which friends autograph „and exchange in honour of Christmas and New Year.

Not Honoured in its Own Land To see the crimson manuka or the yellow kowhai glancing forth from the missive which, at the glad season, one sends or receives, prompts the thought: "How beautiful! Why has not this always been done?" Much the same tardy evolution of taste is occurring in connection with the use of native trees in publicplanting. , Mr. W. H. Denton the other day asked why the public planter did not star the New Zealand plants and trees — species not excelled for beauty and not equalled for adaptability to certain environments. He declared that in England and in other oversea places he had seen a greater utilisation of New Zealand trees in public places — avenues of cordylines, for instance — than could be seen in New Zealand itself. Although some New Zealand species may present certain difficulties when planted individually — difficulties not to be overcome without further study— enough is already known of the adaptability of New Zealand trees and plants to warrant the formulation of a planting policy. If the Government Departments and local bodies concerned would co-operate, they could easily agree as to the suitabality of New Zealand species for planting in public places, either singly or with their plant associates. If the New Zealand trees and plants had received in their own country one half the attention paid to them in other countries, as exotics, .they would to-day be far more in evidence in our parks, and tney would be a cultural feature of our city and town life, besides threading the highways and railways in the rural districts.

Out-of-PIace Exotics Complaints have been made that in such places as tourist resorts round about Rotorua, and even in the Egmont and Tongariro National Park, exotics have been planted where New Zealand species could and should have been planted. The case of the Tongariro heather has become classic. At Egmont various kinds of exotic trees have been put in, not merely remote from the road as part of an exotic timber plantation, but also along the roads mixed with native bush. Surely such intrusions of exotic growths are unnecessary. Not only have public authorities failed to plant the indigenous in preference to the exotic. They have also made unnecessary war on natural indigenous growths. At many places along the railways are groves of associated nat vve species. No oue planted them ; they owe nothing to any cultivator; they softly woo the railway authorities but to spare them. And what do the railway authorities do? They send men to remove fern and noxious weeds, and the ultimate result is generally a fire that burns out weeds, trees, and the growth on the railway property in the vicinity. Good and bad perish alike. Black Wastes Preferred to Beauty Whether the railway clearing gangs find burning the easiest method, or

whether a spark from the engine does the trick, the fact remains that trains run through miles of blackened fireswept ground instead of through groves of the most beautiful vegetation in the world. One day rangiora, houhou, 'mahoe, wineberry, qoprosma, and other evergreens are found gathered together for mutual proteetion, in an emerald grove. Next day a railway fire has left a parched waste. Yet it would have been no great task to cut, the weeds and burn them separately. There is nothing more pathetic than the gallant efforts of mahoe fo recover after a fire. Green shoots reappear on the lower shrivelled branches, but as the young f oliage (tender to wind) , needs the proteetion of the associates that have been slain alongside it, mahoe's gallant comeback avails not. The • seared tree, struclc first by fire and then by wind dies finally on top, but regenerates again from the roots ,to take part in a new-cycle of native growth ending in the same old fire. Public Planting Policy It is to be hoped that the increasingly popular practice of indigenous private gardening will in turn stimulate indigenous public planting. There is much to be learned about how to grow native species, and to this knowledge hundreds* of amateurs as well as many professionals are contributing — but enough is known to make a start, and the time is now. Mr. Denton's suggestion that the local bodies and power boards and all the Government Departments that plant or that destroy plants should be called into conference is a practical suggestion, and the Government should take initial steps. The most hopeful event in 1931 was the stimulation of indigenous gardening by the sympathy of the Governor-General and by his trophy to the best garden. What is wanted in 1932 is some measure to equally stimulate public planting of natives in preference to exotic. Otari open-air plant museum, under the aegis of Dr. L. Cockayne, C.M.G., F.R.S., is a great and growing influence for good — of scientifie as well as popular importance. ; A hot dry summer is on us, and unless campers develop tree-con- ■ sciousness and respect for plant life, . there will be a further 'burning of j ' native vegetation all over the coun- j try. The camper who selects the out- j standing roots of a giant tree, or the i peculiar buttresses of the pukatea, as ■ a convenient place in which to boil • his billy, may by one wanton act destroy a growth of centuries. Why is it that tree-life is not respected in the same way as animal life? No decent man will hurt a farm animal. And even a man lacking in decency will not take many liberties with the farm bull. Yet the decent and the indecent alike are frequently guilty of the wanton destruction of rare old trees and beautiful vegetation.