TREES AND SHRUBS FOR CASHMERE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30819, 3 August 1965, Page 10

TREES AND SHRUBS FOR CASHMERE

Christchurch schoolchildren will plant 1400 trees and shrubs at Elizabeth Park, on the Cashmere Hills, tomorrow to mark Abor Day.

Four primary schools— Opawa, Paparoa Street, Phillipstown, and Thorrington—will take part and provide a work force of 220 children. Most of the trees and shrubs planted will be natives, with a few exotics. Arbor Day was instituted in the United States in 1872 as a day of national tree-plant-ing by J. S. Norton, a Nebraska farmer who had formulated a plan to reafforest the bare plains of his State. Nebraska’s Lead Nebraska’s lead was followed by other States, and the movement became world wide. New Zealand has officially recognised an Arbor Day on the first Wednesday in August since 1892—but Greytown actually celebrated the first Arbor Day in New Zealand in 1890. Some of the trees planted then still line the Greytown-Wellington highway, on the outskirts of Wellington. Even before New Zealand officially recognised Arbor Day, it had been realised that

production was declining in some of the large, treeless areas of the South Island—and the Tree Planting Encouragement Act had been passed in 1871. This provided for a grant of two acres of land for every acre planted in trees in the treeless areas of Canterbury and Central Otago. Sponsored Almost 100 years later, the work of tree-planting is still going on. Tomorrow’s Arbor Day planting on the Cashmere Hills is sponsored by the Summit Road Scenic Society. The society’s chairman (Mr W. D. Douglas) and the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr G. Manning) will address the gathering. Nelson schoolchildren are celebrating Arbor Day next week, on August 11—-but will take pride of place for the greatest collective effort. About 800 children will plant 15 acres at Coronation forest, where schools now have 143 acres planted. Another five acres of trees will be planted by Reefton schoolchildren at Pennyweight forest.