TREE-PLANTING LABOUR

Evening Post, Issue 20, 23 July 1935, Page 11

TREE-PLANTING LABOUR

$T^NDAKD>EATES

BEAUTIFYING HUTT ROAD

As patron of the newly-formed Wellington Beautifying'Society,'Mrs. Knox Gilmer is appealing for subscriptions to a tree-planting- labour fund. -= This fund, it is proposed, will be devoted to employing unemployed.men at standard rates to plant trees which will be found by the society. Persons who give to the. fund will.thus know that their money is being devoted to; paying workless men and to. beautifying the city and district with trees. The first instalment of the project is the planting of the hillward side of the Hutt (Wel-lington-Petone) Road between Kaiwarra and Ngahauranga. :

The society has decided to order at once 2500 pohutukawa trees, so that the present planting season will not be missed. . Members of the society, accompanied by the Director of City Reserves, Mr. J. G. MacKenzie, inspected the site yesterday afternoon. It is anticipated that City Council authority and the Unemployment Board subsidy will, be available." . ..,« .-.. . ...

. It therefore" becomes of ..immediate' importance to raise the '.tree-planting labour fund; and Mrs. Kriox. Kilmer, who was conspicuously successful/ in a re.gent appeal for public subscriptions, again shoulders.that onerous task: Recently her appeal was: "Consider the shelterless." Now- it is": "Consider beauty, and the charm and utility of trees." Bracketed with this Is the providing of wholesome outdoor work at standard, rates.

Two recent attempts have been made to get a tree-planting labour fund going. Mr. B. Sutherland offered £100 conditional on ten others giving £100 each; no seconder has appeared. "Not a Wealthy 'Man" 'offered £10. conditional on one hundred others giving £10 each; only three other ten pounds have come forward.

Now Mrs. Knox Gilmer drops restrictions and simply appeals lor funds, small or great. She asks,for donations, unconditional. Three of the four. £10 ■offers mentioned-above will, it. is-un-derstood, come, in at once on this unconditional basis; .these .three include the £10 donated by Mrs. Knox Gilmer on behalf of another, society, the Wellington Horticultural Society, of Which she is president. If the fourth £10 (forwarded to the "Evening Post" by "Not a Wealthy Man") is similarly made unconditional, then it can be said that -the fund starts- with ; £40. Small additional amounts are already coming in in response to Mrs. Knox Gilmer's appeal made last night, and the "Evening Fost" is prepared to receive'subscriptions in any amount to serve what Mrs. Knox Gilmer calls a twofold purpose—beautiflcation .by planting and standard rates for deserving men. She "The Wellington Beautifying Society has ■ decided to .embark on an immediate tree-planting campaign on the.Hutt Road hills. • the society will not be able to carry out its full programme without some further financial assistance. Realising the urgent need of absorbing men in employment, this appeal is made to citizens, not to buy plants, but to provide money to put a number of men to work. ■ "The need for tree-planting round the city is- urgent, and work for the unemployed is still more urgent The society has as its aim the alleviation of unemployment as-far as is in its power, and it believes that the money spent orr the relief of-distress should, be put to some useful and practical., work. As patron of the society, I aml appealing for funds. The planting season will soon: pass, and an immediate response to this appeal is imperative;" ■ ' • ■ " ■':.:.