"NO MEAN CITY"

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 55, 2 September 1916, Page 9

"NO MEAN CITY"

SPRING IN WELLINGTON

BEAUTIFICATION PROGRESS

TOvVN BELT IMPROVEMENTS.

Spring weather in the week-end drew a lot of people to the hills and the suburbs. To the hills, where grass and gorse are weaving beautiful pictures in green and gold. To the suburbs, where Wellington is at last exhibiting some taste in residential architecture.

Central Park, one of the finest of Wellington's achievements, is preparing for spring. The willow trees along the water-courses are beginning to bud, and soon their light green, deepening as the season marches, will trace agreeable lines of verdure, contrasting with the darker green of the grass and the dusky foliage of the young pines. Broom clumps, spared by the gardeners, will add their golden patches. And the climbing rose, which during the past two seasons has striven courageously, and with increasing success, to cover the yellow clay wall flanking the tramway and the children's playground, will awake again to conquer fresh territory, and to diffuse new sweetness. An excellent idea this climbing Tose—one of •the best in the. park. Other ideas are the bridge and the ponds (completed) and the fountain (building), not forgetting the handsome gutes. Flower-beds on "the flat will be this year seen to much better advantage, for last season they were barely ready. The dip above the Brooklyn tramway (where the line bends over to form the waist of its carefully graded S) is now occupied by. a number of trees, mostly eucalypts, the residt of tree-planting enterprise of something like a decade ago. It is proposed to convert the depression into a recreation ground—a thing that this portion of the city lacks, for Nairn-street Reserve has obvious limitations. Some objection has been raised on behalf of the trees whose fate will be sealed as the work proceeds. On this point there may be room for argument,, but,, generally speaking, there can be but one verdict concerning Central Park. It represents, in embryo, the magnificent utilisation of a waste asset. It will be both park and playground. In the latter department, the children have been pro- l vided for in the elevated lawn, excavated with a good drainage fall, occupying one of the driest and sunniest spots in the park. ' Despite the pathetic appeal to citizens to protect their own property, the vandal and plant-thief were some time ago busy at Central Park. Fortunately, the nursery resources. of the City Council are sufficient to counterbalance this wastage of war. It would be still more j satisfactory if offenders could be brought to justice. . THE BELT AND THE GARDENS. Central Park may, be defined as that segment of the Town Belt lying between Ohiro-road and the * Bidwill-street approach to Brooklyn. Southward from Bidwill-street and Hargreaves-street is another segment of Town Belt offering possibilities of . beautification. It lies between the Bidwill-street approach and the Hutchison or Vogeltown road (that is, the road climbing up the hillside from John-street). , Widening and grading work now being done by the City Council on this road has been accompanied with a partial filling-in of the Jam Tin 'Gully at its base; .At the same time the section of the Town Belt near Jam Tin Gully, on the other side of the Vogeltown-road, has been levelled off. This work of levelling has been carried out by brickmakers, in consideration of their receiving the clay, now much in demand. On the same consideration brickmakers are now excavating in another part of the same segment of Town Belt—that is, along the foothills near Salisbury-terrace, near the bottom of ■ the new footpath to the hill-top suburb. Within an appreciable time both these levelled areas and the filled-in Jam Tin Gully will be available for beautification. And it is not looking very far ahead to see the slopes and ravines of all. this portion of the Town Belt modelled on the lines that are succeeding so well at Central Park. So much has been written of the favourite Botanical Gardens that there is little to add. Spring here is always delightful, with its wealth of bulbs (some bedded, some scattered delightfully in the grass of the hillside), its profusion of seasonal flowers, and its cool retreats in those parts where the native flora predominates. _ On the whole, where art has been applied to the Botanical Gardens, it has been wisely applied. It has left alone what was worth leaving alone. And where it lias . been applied to nature, it has, as a rule, given added beauty. A SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN j SUBURBIA. . What has just been said of the.gardener's art could not have been said, ten years ago, concerning' that of the architect. Wellington architecture- was depressing. It deformed nature, aud added fresh horrors even to the sterile aspect of a stony hillside. But now a new phase. is._ happily .widespread. It is -noticeable in such suburbs as. Hataitai and Kelburn. Here will be found a modern growth of excellent houses, with good approaches, and grounds fast assuming a high standard. Good suburbs are ; as great an asset to a city as are good parks. A wellplanned suburb has its own atmosphere, I and the plan strikes deep in all aspects of its life, public and private. Inspired by general surroundings, every cottager improves his own lot. It becomes a labour of love. Fifteen years ago Hataitai was a bare slope. • Look at it now. Modern residences have climbed up and down both both sides of, the depression, and gardens are* forming where allotments meet in the bottom of the valley. At every point, from the new school—rising on an excavated site amid still uncomplete earthworks—to the latest villa, every-, thing is being built well. . . ■ In its own way, there can be nothing finer than Saturday afternoon in Suburbia. ■ Brilliant sunshine finds every citizen his own (-ordener: and not only he, but his wife as -veil. Even the baby intelligently interferes. (It is whispered that this particular Suburbia is a home of young- couples, and the particular pride of tho Registrar.) There is no need to emphasise the charm of doing your own gardening. Hataitai shows the operation in all its stages, from the beginning to the handsome finished product. In conclusion, let no one depreciate the immense and increasing improvement in Wellington and its environs during the last dozen years—an improvement beginning in civic enterprise and extending to private effort. In municipal management this city is second to none in New Zealand, and the standard that was wisely set by the municipality is rapidly becoming general throughout Greater Wellington.