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Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 62, 6 August 1974, Page 1

Preparing the ground for Ian Arbor Day ceremony at Taupo Intermediate are members of the Forest and Bird Protection Society elective at the school. Up to 50 native shrubs donated by Fletcher's will be planted among existing shrubs at the school, for beautifying purposes tomorrow. The Mayor, Mr C. S. Currie, will briefly address the school on the significance ( of Arbor Day and conservation generally before individual classes share tree-planting honours. The occasion follows a Iunchtime address at the Intermediate School yesterday given by the New Zealand president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, Mr J. V. Jerram. Further emphasis on the importance of conservation is to be given tonight at the College Hall, when Mr Barrie Downey, managing director of the Fletcher Timber Company, will speak on the measures his company is taking to protect the environment in the Taupo area. His talk will be followed by conservation fllms. A panel of locai representatives of conservation ipterests will be present to answer questions from the floor. Taupo College is stretching its Arbor Day to last one term. Under the watchful eyes of teachers and groundsman Mr A. Best pupils will have planted more than 500 trees and shrubs in the college grounds by the end of this term. And tree planting by pupils does not stop at their college. Working in with the Taupo Lions Club, additional planting will be .done at the sewage treatment plant and at Broadlands. Most of this work has come about through the college's concern that students should look after their environment. ' "By planting these trees we hope to encourage them to do just that," said the relieving principal, Mr N. A. Pointon. And it also serves to foster pride in their accomplishments, he said. The chairman of the college's environmental committee -r- a seventh

"leading lights" in the tree planting project. It is due much to his efforts that work has gone ahead so smoothiy. These efforts have been backed up and put into action by the school as a whole, said Mr Pointon. Money for the plants came from $100 from the student council and a $200 subsidy from the board of governors. These sums have been supplemented by donations of either money or trees by the pupils. Mr Be^t has also propogated plants. Ln all, about half an acre will be jilanted.