TREE PLANTING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 12017, 19 October 1904, Page 5

TREE PLANTING.

I TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir,—ln this morning's issue Mr o"Callaghan attempts to reply to my letter of the 12th inst., and not only attempts to jit&tify his previous inaccurate statements, but makes several more. His object, apparently, is to magnify himself in the eyes of the public, seeing that he talks very bigly about tree planting "under my direction," and the planting of the plane and other avenues 'T supervised." Here Mr O'Callaghan is aspiring to honours he did not win. He ne/er, during my time, either "supervised" or "directed" anything, and wan never foreman. He was employed as an ordinary labourer, his connection with the planting of the plane and other avenue* being simply the digging of the holes for the trees, and the levelling up after He says that there was no pruning "in those days,"-and if there had been, there would have been no need for "the hue and cry nt the present time." Here Mr O'Callaghan must either be possessed of a very short memory, or lie is ________________________

. -, tmih,* ttere - far {more "thinning arid. j rnning in'my time than-there .lias?ev*r been tit»c«;>and : also,~l-must-more "hue-and cry 1 ' in the newspapersii But there nwwt sorely be a limit *tb jthfr thinning i"of ~ plantations, and any, qualified expert will tell you.dJiat nothing is rmore etsily "overdone. \ Mr ; o'CaHagnan being no/expert at all, his opinions are simply of no value whatever. The point I wished .to emphasise, in my first letter was that the Domain Board h.vl nothinz whatever to do with the railway, plantations, and that Mr O'Callaghah's eulogy of their work in this direction was beside the mark. His attempt to reply to my remarks on this point fhows - liis ignorance of the whole matter very forcibly. It so happens that when the bulk of" tha Northern Railway planting wa* done there was no Domain Board in existence. But let that pass. Mr O'Callaghan cays that' there was n» real difference between tho position of the Board before and after the abolition of the provinces, and thaT the late Mr J. F. Armstrong was just us ivyponrible to Domain Boa>d as tho present curator. is. The truth is, that the difference was a vi ry wide one. Before abolition the Dopjain Board was merely a Board of adyios and all its acts had to be approved by the Provincial Government. " Not a fhilling could be j-pent except by vote of the Provincial Council, and all salaries and accounts had to be paid hv the Provincial Treasury. The late Mr .T. F. Armstrong, the. curator, was also Inspector of Public Plantations, appointed under tlie sal of th? Superintendent, and a» Mich was responsible only to. the Provincial Government, and not to the Domain 80-ird. which had wo authority outside of the Domain. We sometimes read in the newspapers letter* by rarities of the John O'Callaurhin typ?. praising tiie Domrin Beard for tho great public werk done or it. but, as a. matter of fact, it is to th<> old provincialifts that the Cliiistclutnb publics owe the priceless boon of the parks and gardens, and the following are *h" Mmes of those* whom memory ought t - > hoM lront dear in this direction: —Robert Wilkin. Cyrus* Davie. T. IT.- Potts. William Moorhonse, William RoHeston. W. Gi.i-~e Brittan, who have all and 1 lart, but not least. Sir John Hall, who is rtill with us, and, T think, may faivlv claim to add the name of the late J. F. Armstrong.—Your?.' etc, J. B. ARMSTRONG. October 17th.