TREE FELLING—DOMAIN AND PARKS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7868, 20 May 1891, Page 3

TREE FELLING—DOMAIN AND PARKS.

TO THE EDITOR 01 THE PRESS.

•'"Sffi,—The pathetic utterances of his Worship the Mayor at last night's meeting of the Council on the subject of thinning-out trees in the parks and Domain are very ludicrous. I have noticed many references by his Worship and others to this wanton destruction of all that's beautiful. But such is the cry of people who have not the knowledge to create something beautiful. A dense mass of foliage on the tops of otherwise bare poles, with a lot of beastly undergrowth that would always be a fruitful source of danger of destruction by fire, 4c, is apparently the idea of some people who become officials on the Board of Management. I have watched the growth of our Park and Domain trees for more than twenty years, and (whilst flattering myself with a fair knowledge of the subject) have wondered for years past at the continued neglect to thin out, thereby gaining beautiful symmetrical trees. It is all very well to plant thickly at the start, with a view to general shelter, but more early—years earlier— thinning out should have been resorted to. In consequence of that neglect trees have become ragged just where they were wanted to be well grown, and vice versa. Hence the "wrenches" which some of the Board of Management are reported to have suffered on a recent occasion. If proof of the good result of judicious thinning be wanted, I ask for an examination of the trees round the boundaries of the Park. The improvement in growth and beauty of those trees is a pleasure to look at now that they have light and freedom to make an all-round growth.—Yours, &c, A Lov__ of Nature. Tuesday, May 19th,