Planting for Arbor Day

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 3

Planting for Arbor Day

In bitterly cold northeast conditions, about 250 senior pupils from four Christchurch primary schools marked Arbor Day yesterday by planting about 1000 trees at Elizabeth Park, Cashmere. The children, from the Mount Pleasant, North New Brighton. Redcliffs, and Sumner schools, took about a half an hour to complete their task. Helped by teachers and members of the City Council Parks and Reserves department, they planted the exotic and native trees and shrubs in an area beside the radio transmitting station. The director of Parks and Reserves for the City Council (Mr H. G. Gilpin) said that most of the trees and shrubs planted at the park over recent years were the result of Arbor Day activities.

Mr Gilpin said he hoped that the public would respect the work done by the children and not re-

move the trees to plant in their own gardens, as had been a popular practice over recent years. The chairman of the Parks and Reserves Committee (Cr P. D. Dunbar), attended the ceremony on behalf of the City Council. The Minister of Lands (Mr Maclntyre) commemorated Arbor Day by planting a kauri sapling at Whity, near Wellington, yesterday, the Press Association reports. Arbor Day was recognised as a public holiday two years after it was founded in 1890, but after a couple of decades it lost this distinction, he said. In many towns and cities it was barely remembered, apart from a few people who did a great deal of hard work.

"When you plant a tree you are doing something that will give pleasure to many people for many years,” Mr Maclntyre said.