'Arbor-Day.'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 17 July 1902, Page 17

'Arbor- Day.'

Tuesday was Arbor Day in New Zealand, but to far as oould be observed the name miffht as well be atruok from the calendar. In the southern part of the Colony there was a grim irony about the event, inasmuch as the weather wag more suitable for hovering near the fireside than propitious for the planting of trees. One who has arborioultural taßte, and, therefore, desires to see hia foresight rewarded with fruition, does not plant trees when onow and sleet are on the ground. Moreover, to generate national enthusiasm in the planting of trees it is neoesaary that some ceremony should be observed, and that the young ihould take part in it. Pew parents would permit their children to assemble and stand for hours in a bleak and exposed locality, condemned to endure the bitter July blasts, and the not lean grievous infliction of windy speeches. As a matter of fact, a highly meritorious event which should recur annually is doomed to failure because of a stubborn and futile attempt to fly in the face of nature by selecting tha ona day for the whole of the Colony. Nature ridicules such efforts, and eventually resiets them by displaying her most bitter moods. It has thus come about that the observation of Arbor Day has already fallen into deeuetade, thongh inaugurated only a few yean ago when the barren aspect ot great parts of the Colony called for reproach, and when the rapid diminution of available forests acted as a warning. In a few years New Zealand will be a treeless waste, unless some systematic national attempt is made to plant the

naked places. To neglect the opportunity is to ignore the potentialities of wealth beyond the wildest dreams of avarice, and the generations of the future will not be sparing in their reproaoh.