SCENERY PRESERVATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1916, Page 3

SCENERY PRESERVATION.

ANNUAL REPORT. Following is the annual report of the | New Plymouth Scenic Reserves Board (Mr. G. H. Bullard, chairman), passed at the annual meeting held recently:— The Board, which was constituted by iV arrant of His Excellency, the Governor, bearing date November 11, 1915, ■ held its first meeting on November £3, 1915, and up to the close of March 31 last has held three sittings. The reserves controlled by the Board are those known as Ratapihipihi and Puketi Pa, both of which have been unisonally inspected by members in the interim. The former is an areit of 50 uires in the Omnta district, about four miles from New Plymouth, and t ; r: latter contains an area of 9J acres, be');': portion of New Plymouth Town Boit and situated adjoining the public cemetery within the Borough. The Board has already made representations to the Minister in Charge to have the Pukerangiora Pa and the Onaero Scenic Reserve also brought under its control, and the matter is now under consideration. The Board is arranging with the Kew Plymouth Borough Council for the latter to take a lease of the Puketi Pa at a peppercorn rental, subject to the usual conditions embodied in leases under Section 9, Scenery Preservation Act, 1908, and with the additional right of the Reserves Board to plant any portion of the land from time to time with ornamental trees as may be deemed desirable. The term of the lease is 'till •a matter of negotiation between the Ptard and the Council. Thn Borough Council have a!s> under consideration the offer of the Board to take a grazing lease over the open portion of the Ratapihipihi Reserve, comprising about five acres. The Board is anxious to make the whole of the latter reserve more accessible to vis'irr.- by grading two or three paths through the same down to the water, but being without funds has been unable so far to move in the matter.

The receipts and expenditure of the Board for the year were nil.