Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1894. ARBOR DAY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4749, 16 June 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1894. ARBOR DAY.

SECOND EDITION

AriiorDayiis a State holiday is a ghastly, dismnl failure. Feeble' efforts in many parts of the Colony have been made to infuse lifo and spirit into it, but ono aud all have fizzled out, and tho junketing in connection with fhora lins bjen funereal in the extreme, On jijio Ist of August, the appointed day, it usually ruins or blows in this Colony, aud yot peoplo aro called upon, regardless of weather, to picnic, porhaps in a hailstorm, or hold a jubilee in n south-eastor. Men who i don't know a tree from a cabbago are required to .turn out with pick and shovel, ■fyaiwfc aro to be ; requisitioned, and what is worse,; open air speeches delivered, while! children in their best clothes are to walk in procession with nil the, umbrellas available in full sail, and 1 cat buns a'the public expense, Thoj common., senso of tho Colony has, j however,' decided that an outdoor! jubilee cannot; be successfully arranged at a seiisok of the year when rough weather prevails, and so very few people take any notice of it, excepting, ofcoorse, the clerks in in tho Government Buildings, who get a holiday, and, no doubt, go and plant fees, but whero they plant them is unknown ;■ although it is thought that there is a whole forest of them somewhere in the vicinity of the Empire, City. The planting, however, apart; from ihe State holiday, is a public duty. We have always thought that the Mas'tertbn Borough Council should spend from ten to twenty pounds, a'year in beautify iiig" tlie appi-oaclipa to the towii ,by planting and maintaining suitableshado trees, VWhafcyoHldbe the Wesloynn Cliuroh .to tlio railway and visitors ii'mcra plcasing'irhpi'es. Ision of the town than this, and what ja most deh'ghtfnl piOTonade suoh a I Bbaded tlxoi-ougrbtsre wouW w^e!

Itwould absolutely pay tho Boi-ough Council to do the work; because the properties on either side of the road ,in question would be enhanced in value, and the Borough Valuator would at once incrcaso the assessment. Is there hot'a man on the Borough Council who can look ahead a little and point out tlio profit of a reproductive expenditure of this kind. The whole of the work could be done by the Borough staff, and as for the trees thoy could bo got byprivatosubscriptionin twenty-four hours. We believetlinttlieratepayera would not grudgo some such small sum as this little planting would cost to improve the Borough, and that a few pounds carefully expended would goalongway. • If Arbor Day woald stimp municipalities to some little enterprise of this kind it would bo useful, but unfortunately it does not in most places, and we fear that in Mastertou it will be ineffective,