OUR BEAUTY SPOTS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 131, 4 June 1924, Page 5

OUR BEAUTY SPOTS

WHAT WELLINGTON SHOULD DO

TO IHE EDITOR. ' Sir, —One' is beginning to wonder wliy we elect a City Council, and pay high salaries, to experts to advise them on constructions, alterations, improvements, etc.. when we have so many people in our midst who know so much better than the council and its experts just what is wanted to make our surroundings -the most lovely on earth.; Any suggestion from councillors that they are going to cut down a tree or fill in a hole brings about them a swarm of faddists and sparrowhawks, who must have things done their way or not at all, and, unfortunately, these folk can't see anything that needs to be done outside of their own back feuce. Quite recently the City Engineer. advised the removal] of some trees to ease the' congestion in Courtenay place; .he required every inch of the ground to carry out his plans. Then someone discovered that these trees had scarlet tips to them at Christmas, and so the plans must be altered, and not the trees. Yet these same tree-leaves, in the dull months of the year, are an ugly bottlegreen, and probably that is why Nature never planted them about Wellington, but gave them freely to Auckland and her environment. The impudence of it! An expert must alter his plans to suit 'a novice!

It is known to most old Wellington residents that there is a slit in the- ground at. Thorndqn, long waiting to be sewed up. I(; has been a happy hunting ground for rats, bugs, and sparrows, but it would be a great reflection on Welling-' ton to call it a beauty spot. Neither iias it any value for zoology, botany, or ornithology. Before the advent of bridges or gas, it was a danger to children, ramblers, and animals! Any curiosity hunter could find somewhere down this chasm'the bones of old Blackwatch, if the dust of years has not hidden them from view. Now, the time has arrived when the City Council can turn this chasm into a beauty spot, and use it for a higher purpose in the interest of the community. But up jump our .City Solomons: Hands off our Thorndon' Eden; if you council cut a twig or throw a barvpwful of earth into this noble gully, then Wellington will lose the race, and drop behind, unlionoured; and unsung. Who amongst us but remembers the hullabaloo, about cutting dqwn the pines at the entrance to the Botanical Qavdens? Scarred and grooved were those pines to the ppint of ugliness; just a few needle leaves up in . the skyline. Just look at that bank now, with its curving slopes covered with native shrubs, trees, and fuchsias—oiie of the finest banks in the colony; and ten times more beautiful than the "pines they replaced. As you may reasonably expept, the experts knew better than the hullabaloos.

But should any qf qur old bush-lovers wish to see some of our bush glories return, what about replanting Tinakori or • Victoria? Young plants of our bush beauties can still be got. Trees that came down nearly to. the waters' edge on the eastern slopes of the harbour. I can see a sloping-range still just beyond Brown's Whare, beginning at your feet with Koromiko, then the colour changing leaf of the makpmako, then the'chaining leaf of the wharangi,' silver of the matipou, red of the mahau, semi-transparency of the tlrata, to prevent monotony, the deep green of-the haumakaroa, nga-io, with its pit T ted leaf, the niamaku lifting her head amongst them all, and her silver, sister, ponga reflecting sunbeams; further up the hinau, the robust rata, rimu, and at the back like a frame in which the whole were, set the black birch (beech). But I must not forget that magnificent leaf, the bushman's tonic, kohekohe. All qf these, and others, are within our reach to-day, and if we coul'd—and we can if we would,—reproduce Nature's pictures on the soil in her own colour arrangement. Unlike her, we have not a thousand years to practise in. If the early colonists are to leave some* lines of beauty on the hills, it must be done at, -once, and it would be a nice idea to hand on to the generations- coming spine bright specimen of'New Zealand's forest_ flora. This would also, assist the council to add charms to our charming city.—l am, etc., ' '- " CLAPHAM PADDOCK 4th June,