The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1912. BEAUTIFYING NEW PLYMOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 307, 24 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1912. BEAUTIFYING NEW PLYMOUTH.

The annual meeting of the New Plymouth Beautifying Association will be held to-morrow, and we hope that although the business before the meeting is mainly of a formal nature there will be a large attendance ,of citizens. In a quiet way this unpretentious little organisation has done a good deal of earnest and useful work for the community, I without really getting that recognition in money and in kind that it deserves. According to Bacon, the man who plants a tree performs an act of worship, and there is plenty of room in New Plymouth for constant services of this kind. Also we have the highest authority for stating that the man who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew originally does a service to his country. This i 3 just what the Beautifying Association, on somewhat more aesthetic lines, is engaged in doing. One of the blessings of life in New Zealand cities' is that owing to the forethought of her hardy pioneer settlers the towns, are mostly provided with plenty of "lungs," in the shape of reserves and endowments which aire held in inalienable heritage for the people. New Plymouth is among the favored ones in this respect, and we should like to see a little more general interest devoted to the preservation and beautifying of its reserves. There is ample scope for planting and decorating upon Marsland Hill and along the Esplanade, whilst the banks of both the Huatold and Te Henui streams might easily, with very little expenditure, be made beauty spots in keeping with the glories of the magnificent park of which we are all bo proud. A correspondent has very happily suggested that the best means of accomplishing this desirable end would be to organise a series of working bees, when those who are not able to give in money or in kind could donate a few hour-; of their time to assisting the Beautifying Association in its voluntary labor of love. We feel quite sure that there are plenty of young fellows in the town who are sufficiently patriotic to spare a couple of half-holidays for work of this sort, and the scheme only wants some able organiser to take it in hand to make it an immediate success. Incidentally, the work would come very well within the functions of the Brotherhood. But the task should be taken in hand at once. We are just on the eve of "gardening time," and there are plenty of people who would willingly supply bulbs and puttings, and seeds, and plants, for the decoration of the reserves, if they were assured of their being planted and attended to. Working bees of this character have produced splendid results in Christchureh, Timaru, Wangnnui and elsewhere, and they have been amply supplemented by the holding of floral fetes and similar functions during the summer months. If some such suggestion is made at to-morrow's meeting, we hope that it will meet with a warm response.

Rightly or wrongly, our neighbors have got into the habit of regarding us as being civically somewhat lethargic, and this would provide an ample opportunity for disabusing them of this mistaken notion.