TREE REMOVED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 67, 20 March 1937, Page 10

TREE REMOVED.

COMPLAINT AT MT., EDEN. CONSIDERED A DANGER, A complaint that the Mount Eden Borough Council hfd cut down valuable and beautiful trees without giving residents an opportunity to protest is made in a letter received from a resident of Essex Road, Mr. E. B. Bambury. He describes the action of the council as a "piece of vandalism."

Recently the council received a complaint from a householder in Essex Road that a large pepper tree in front of his place was an annoyance and source of danpwr to him when parading his car. The matter came before the council, and a sub-committee of the parks committee was appointed to investigate. Mr. Bambury states that residents of Essex Road strongly objected to the proposal of the council to remove certain trees and he says, the Mayor, Mr. T. McNab, together with the chairman of the parks committee and two councillors, promised the trees would not be removed unless the matter was considered by the whole council. Now, says Mr. Bambury, the council, without any warning-, has "had hacked about, and chopped down, trees which took years to grow and which were a decided asset to the street."

When the complaint was referred today to Mr. A. P. Hartnoll, a member of the sub-committee, he admitted that the pepper tree in E*sex Road had been a very fine one, but the committee, after making an inspection, had decided it was a danger. Had there been an accident the council would probably have been liable. Therefore, not without some regret, as the tree bad been planted by Mr. Gray, for many years town clerk of the borough, the" committee had ordered it to be removed. The council was not setting out on a tree-destrovin"-campaign, he added. On the other hand" it was very anxious to preserve trees wherever possible, but this could not be done where they constituted a possible danger.