PLANTING THE BELT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 10 February 1926, Page 10

PLANTING THE BELT

NOT A COSTLY BUSINESS

AN OFFER FROM SIR HEATON

RHODES

COUNCIL NOT MOVING IN THE

MATTER.

. Various proposals and plans have been put forward during the last ten or more years for the planting and beautification of the Town Belt, but proposals and plans by themselves do not clothe bare spaeea.

A little, planting' has been done by the'council year by year, but such work is local, a i'ew hundred trees— perhaps,a few thousand—on this slope, a few hundreds or a thousand a couple of miles away; there has been no goneral planting scheme. Last year even the little - was curtailed to a very little, for the council decided that there was insufficient money available for any of it to/be sunk, as tree roots, in the.Town Belt or elsewhere. At any rate, the special vote for the planting which had in previous years been granted was not forthcoming. That trees will grow about Wellington, and, moreover, flourish greatly, is r.bundsntly . proved by the success of the plantations in Central Park, on the Tinakori,Hills, below the wireless, and by the very large plantation on the Miramar Peninsula, near Point Halswell. .Long before tree culture was thought of, Wellington's. hills were largely bush clad. Karori, for in-' stance, was once heavy forest land.

818 HEATON BHODES'S SUGGESTION.

! ■■ Some months ago; Sir Heaton Bhodes, the Minister in. Charge of State Forest Services, made a suggestion to the Mayor that an arrangement might be come to whereby the State Department should take over ■ the planting of the Belt with a view of clothing the hills, and at the same . time growing useful and valuable timber. Whether on account of legal or other difficulties, or whether for another reason, the proposal was not, or has not been, accepted. Possibly, probably in fact, the people of Wellington in twenty or thirty or more years' time would lift their hands in holy, horror should a State Department commence cutting into their own Town Belt trees, even if the State had planted those trees under such an arrangement with the city.\\From that point of view State planting in a city area may have, its drawbacks,, and from the city's point of view there may be another way, in due good time, of achieving the same object. "Trees Will Certainly Grow." ': "Where there,is soil and rain, and sunshine and . the. will to grow trees, trees will certainly grow," remarked a gentleman of distinctly expert knowledge; to a "Post" reporter to\day. "We are not restricted to one claw of tree, and every, part of the - Belt' thin is not required, or may in the future be required, for recreative purposes caa be transformed at. comparatively littlo cost from a barren open space t something beautiful and attractive, whether visited itself or looked upon from a mile away. .•■ ■

'' Continental and American cities attach real importance to their city parks, not as mere football areas for the playing of games, but as something of a wider significance. A lot is said about Wellington's lungs, meaning the Town Belt, but most Wellington people are quite content to gaze across a'milo or two of space at those lungs; they area set aside for them, primarily bearea sea aside for them, primarily bacause there is nothing beautiful to.enj<V when one gets there. Wellington has far too few trees.

"Whenever tree-planting, on any thing like a broad scale is mentioned the same answer is invariably given: it costs too much. Actually tree-plant-ing does not cost too much, particularly as the City Council would spread the work over a period of years. Probably £5 per acre would cover the whole of the cost, including fencing to guard the trees until they gained firm hold. Even if a full thousand acres were planted, would £5000 cripple Wellington for all time?

"It is always good policy for a council to put off to-day what another cou«icil may pay for to-morrow, but this planning out and planting of the Tow.a Belt has been put off.for many years alreadyl' Is Wellington a sufficiently beautiful/town to warrant more beautification, or does the council regard bare hills attractive neither at a distance nor close at hand, as perfection already attained?" ,