TREES ON POINT HALSWELL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 118, 22 May 1925, Page 6

TREES ON POINT HALSWELL

The decision of the CommiS" sipner of State Forests to plant Point Halswell and the Defence Reserve up to Mount Crawford is one which will be heartily a p* proved by all who wish to see the late Prime Minister's resting place fittingly beautified. The planting already carried put on the peninsula has been most effective, and no one will doubt that an extension of the plantations is most desirable. The Government, however, controls only part of the land; and to complete the beautification scheme it is necessary that the City should co-operate. To encourage such co-operation Sir Heaton Rhodes is understood to have . proposed that the Council should lease certain areas to the State Forest Service, which would then undertake the planting. For the Minister's desire to help and for his practical proposal citizens should be grateful; but we think, nevertheless, that the Council itself should undertake the work. The City owns the land and should accept the responsibility of ownership. An arrangement to provide for planting by the State Forest Service might be made if necessary; but otherwise the Council should retain control, first as a duty, and secondly in order that it may harmonise the planting scheme with whatever plans may be made for the use of other reserves' in "this vicinity.