MOUNT COOK GROUNDS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 190, 10 May 1938, Page 10

MOUNT COOK GROUNDS

Improvement Scheme In

Progress BIG PLANTING PROGRAMME Through the employment of a number of men under the Government rotational scheme (in which the Government pays the wages, and the city council finds the materials, tools and cartage), the grounds of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum on Mount Cook are at length being put into something like order.

For the opening ceremony a rush effort was made to shape and turf and plant the sloping banks on either side of the carillon tower, and good work was done. To-day, those banks boast a thick mat of the greenest grass, and 90 per cent, of the shrubs planted are thriving wonderfully well. But the rest of the grounds, save for levelling and some road-kerbing, were left untouched until this year, when the rotational scheme was made available to the council, which, with the consent of the trustees of the institution, has placed the finishing off of the grounds under the supervision of the director of parks and reserves. Mr. J. G. MacKenzie.

Mr. MacKenzie paid a visit to the grounds yesterday, accompanied by a “Dominion” reporter, to whom he' explained exactly what work was being carried out under the scheme. Men were busily employed in turfing the eastern bank, and the level area on top, overlooking Tasman Street. Mr. MacKenzie pointed out that a variation had been made from the even levelling of that extensive bank, by the construction of two pathways, both of which lead northward and upward from the Tasman Street entrance to the grounds. The whole of this bank was dotted with dry branches. The director explained that these marked holes, which had been prepared and filled with soil for the reception of trees that were to be planted. No fewer than 500 poliutukawas are to he planted along that bank to-day, and Mr. MacKenzie hopes within the next three months to plant about 2000 trees in the National Gallery grounds. Between the top sward, above the eastern bank, and the roadway which circles the institution, there is a broad strip of ground for parking cars. Similar provision Is made on the other side of the road, so that when there are important functions in the building there should be no lack of parking space. Between the inner parking space and the building is space for a shrubbery, which is being supplied this week with firstrate soil from the gardens of the premises in Brougham Street which have been acquired for the extension of the Clyde Quay School. This soil came to hand most opportunely, and will enable a good deal of planting to be done within a few feet of the outer walls of the building.

The grounds around the cottage, erected for the foreman of works during the construction period, have been levelled off, and are to -be turfed as opportunity serves. Nearby is a wellgrown grove of trees which divides the National Art Gallery property from the Technical College grounds. Mr. MacKenzie here indicated a pohutukawa tree, not far from the main entrance of the school, which he said was planted by the late Earl 'Jellicoe, when Go-vernor-General of New Zealand.