TREES IN STREETS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 174, 16 March 1932, Page 6

TREES IN STREETS

VISITOR'S VIEWS APPLICATION OF THREE WAY TRAPFIC IN THE STATES. PLANTING KEPT TO SIDES. Interesting views on the three-way traffic proposal for Whaka Road were given to a "Post" representative yes- i terday by Mr. J. Henry Daykin, of j Geneva City, New York, who is at j present visiting Rotorua on a holiday trip. Mr. Daykin, who is the repre- I sentative of the Patent Cereals Co., of Geneva, arrived in New Zealand by the Mariposa and left yesterday for Wellington en route to Sydney. As a man who had travelled extensively in every State of the Union, Mr. Daykin proelaimed himself an enthusiastic advocate of the three-way traffic principle, but expressed the opinion that the syst; m of planting [ trees fianking the central roadway |i was one fraught w'th danger from a | traffic point of view.' In the great majority of the cities in the States, 1 Mr. Daykin stated, the three-way traffic principle was in vogue, but almost without exception, the planting of trees had been restricted to the footpath edges, as it was considered altogether too r:sky from a traffic point of view to have trees adjacent to the central two-way road. Mr. Daykin conceded that a much mox*e beautiful effect was obtained by the planting of park strips, but said that in his opinion, if provision was to be made for future traffic requirements, it would be well to take the experience of other towns into consideration. Under the general system of three-way traffic obtaining in the States, he said, the central roadway was separated from the one-way route s only by a broad black line, but the width of the bitumen was relieved by the planting of trees fianking the sidcwalks. Appreciation of Rotorua. Mr. Dayk'n was warm in his appreciation of Rotorua as a- holiday resc. 't and paid a tribute to the industry of many of the residents in cultivati'g their private gardens. He had not ed many very attractive garde >s about the town and thought that ti Is added very greatly to the attractive appcarance of the suburbs. (In pass:ng, Mr. Daykin stressed the amportance of town planning in a centre such as Rotorua and express . d the opinion that any town should be laid out on a definite plan. This r.ot only ensured an harmonious desi ,n and lay-out, but preventrd waste'ul expenditure in the future alteration of streets, sewers and other services. Mr. Daykin was interested wh n'mformed of the plans at present under disci.ssion for the beautification of Rotoroa and stated that in his opinion planti/ g with native trees should go a lo g way to enhance the attractions of I otorua to visitors. Unreasonable Antagonlsm. "We don't mix enough and we hr ve very few opportunities of getting gether on common ground," he sa:d, referring to the relations betwc n New Zealand and other parts of ihe Empire with America. There was no doubt, he thought, that there was a good deal of altogether unreasonable antagonism on the part of both rntions, and this could only be elimin 1 ted by increased contact between ihe pcoples. There were faults on bo'h s:des, for if some Americans were nclined to offend the susceptibilities of New Zealanders, equally so were sorie New Zealanders inclined to irritrte Americans. An American accent was often not an asset in this Dominion. but it should be remembered that ihe Amer:can's accent was just as mi h a part of his national individuality as the Englisliman's, the Australia i's or the New7 Zc alander's. No one of these peoples could claim to be uniformly right in their systems of pronunciation and in any case, an accent was a very small th:ng to hinder goodfellowship.

Tariff Barriers. Mr. Daykin was inclined to attribute a large proportion of the an .agonism between British countries and America to the high tariff barriers erected on both sMes. It was only to be expected when one country set up tariff walls against another countr/'s products that there would' be retallatory measures. In his opinion, one of the most effective means of promoting goodwill would be the levelling of these barriers to a more reasonably and neighbourly level. In any case, it was the general retail consumer who was paying for these tariff walls. Signs of Recovery. There were distinct signs of recovery from the depression evidont In his own country, chiefly due, he thought, to "greater faith on the part of the people, and less talk." Men with money to invc st were realisi ig the futility of tierng it up and as a result there was a much more reass.iring tone of confidence in business generally. He knew from his own experience that in the States it was now possible to build for a third 1 .ss than had been the case two years aero.

At the same time, Mr. Daykin's ndvice to New Zealanders wras to iVl thankful for a very fine country and give their energies to its developme ff. He had had enquiri- s in New Zeah-nd regarding the possibilities of devel ' ing business in the States, but wh le distant fields might appear greeu, he thought that New Z. alanders wo ffd be wefi advised to concentrate upcn their own pastures. Surfeit of Politicians. One of the main handicaps to development in the States, as in some other countr'es, was the lack of statesmen and the surfeit of pnl'ticians. A very great number of the men returned to Congress were neither fitted by j ducation nor ability to pnrticipate in the nation's government — many of them could not even run their own businesses successfully, yet they were eketed by a people wn eh was too ready to l:sten to politLal catch-cries and ignore the necessity for more concrete qualifications. "The Almighty knows and He wcn't tell," said Mr. Daykin when questioned regarding the possibilities of the ppproaching pres'dential election. There appeared to be serious divisions in the ranks of the Dunocrats, who alreadv had three strong candidates in the field, while the Republicans were presenting a much more united front and had the possibility of the re-

nomination of Mr. Hoover as a tru.np card. "Kill a Mule." Although the machhiery for its enforcement was far from what it should be, Mr. Daykin thought that the possibility of a reversion from Prohibition was extremely reinote. Despite its many abuses, there was undoubtedly a great deal less drunkenness and waste of money; in sp'te of the depression, one did not see nearly so many ragg.d children as in the days before the enforcement of Ihe 18th Amendment. It was true chat a great deal of harm was being done by the illegal sale of liguor which in many cases was almost synthetic poison. "This stuff would kill a muls at 40 yards," said Mr. Dayk:n picturesquely. The people who were buying bootleg liquor were paying- a very high price for it} and whisky vhich could not be considered even moderately good cost as much as eight or nine dollars a quart. While dealing w'th prohibition, Mr. Daykin expressed the opinion that one of its effects had been to increase drinking among young psople. It might not be altogether fair to attribute this wholly to the lax enforcement of the law, but some of the responsibih'ty undoubtedly lay in that direction.