1400 Trees Planted In Arbor Day Ceremony

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 18

1400 Trees Planted In Arbor Day Ceremony

About 1400 trees and shrubs were planted on the slopes of the Cashmere Hills in less than an hour yesterday. The secret of the speed was the number of planters —nearly 220 children from four Christchurch schools. The planting was the annual function to mark Arbor Day. postponed from last Wednesday because of bad weather. Yesterday the weather could hardly have been better—the hills basked under a cloudless sky, while scarcely a breath of wind ruffled the air. The children, from the Paparoa street, Onawa, Thorrington and Phillipstown schools, gathered in Elizabeth Park, beside Dyers Pass road and about half a mile uphill from the Sign of the Takahe. The ground had already been partly prepared bv workmen from the Christchurch City Council, and before the children moved to the planting sites they heard brief addresses.

Those present included Mr D. Douglas, the president of the Summit Road Scenic Society: Mr R. K. Milne, a member of the Canterbury Education Board, Mr H. G. Gilpin, the director of the City Council’s parks and reserves department, Mr G. Henderson, the assistant d’rector of the department, Mr J. P. Fahey, district adviser in science with the Canterbury Education Board and Cr. P. J. Skellerup. chairman of the council’s parks and reserves committee.

The children were welcomed on behalf of the Summit Road Scenic Society by Mr Douglas. The group was the seventeenth to come to the hills to mark Arbor Dav with a tree-planting, he said, and many thousands of children had now taken part in the annual function. Cr. Skellerup, representing the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr G. Manning) who was unable to attend, told the children they were going to do something they would be proud of.

Tn a few years you will come up here and get quite a kick out of seeing these trees.”

Trees seemed to bring out the best in people, he said. Trees had commercial value too—the city council’s Bottle Lake plantation earned about £25,000 a year toward the running of the city. Trees were not only beautiful but also of great value to New Zealand.

Mr Milne said he thought it an excellent thing that pupils from various schools should be brought together each year for the treeplanting functions. The trees and shrubs planted were mostly of native varieties, with a few exotics.

The annual city schools’ Arbor Day ceremony is sponsored by the Summit Road Scenic Society, with the help of the Canterbury Education Board and the Christchurch City Council.