ARBOR DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 169, 18 July 1924, Page 8

ARBOR DAY.

HAS IT BEEN DROPPED. There are quite a number of saints' days, feast days, bank and other holidays which the calendar contains, but very few folk pause in their ordinary stride to remember these strenuous times. It is only the citizen who goes along to the bank to withdraw or deposit money that is persuaded to consult the calendar for those sundry so-called bank holidays, when locked and bolted doors coldly announce that the community shall do no nioney changing that day, no matter what its urgency. Most people can and do get along very well without these half-mast sort of holidays, but years ago the Government placed Arbor Day in the list for a definite and what appeared a very useful and proper purpose, the encouragement of the people, and especially young people, in the planting and fostering of trees. It was never intended to be in the nature of an ordinary holiday, and was never observed as one, except in Government departments, where it was least needed. It was _ fixed , more with the object of impressing on the community the value of aboriculture and the cardinal need of afforestation. And to this end the ■ schools of the country were regarded as the chief propagandist grounds. C where the young folk could have instilled into their minds a love of trees and a knowledge of the importance it was to the economic wellbeing of the land that for every tree felled a sapling should be planted to take its place. Each year a Gazette notice fixed the date of Arbor Day, but for some reason it was dropped out of the Government calendar last year, while so far no Arbor Dnv announcement has ' been made thfs winter. In view of the emphasis which is being laid nowadays on afforestation as a national need, it seems somethin" of a pity to allow so useful an educa" tional factor to be consigned to the limbo of forgotten things.