PLANTING ON HUTT ROAD

Evening Post, Issue 20, 23 July 1935, Page 8

PLANTING ON HUTT ROAD

If pohuLukawas are established on the hilhvsud flank of the Hutt road between Kaiwarra and Ngahauranga, the new Beautifying Society will eventually be able to claim that it has blazed its trail, and has made good a pious hope that' Wellington has entertained for at least twenty years —and never accomplished. The first need of course is money, and the society, with the active help o£ its patron, Mrs. Knox Gilmer, is seeking to fill that primary need by appealing for funds. It will itself provide an initial order of 2500 pohutukawas, which is a fairly solid indication that the present planting season will not be altogether missed, and that a. substantial start will be made with a long-needed work, giving, with the' aid of the Unemployment Board's subsidy, employment to workless at standard rates. To plantlovers this experiment will be very interesting, Frost this winter has killed quite a number of young pohutukawas, particularly in the higher suburbs, but proximity to the sea and to sea-level holds out the hope that the young trees on the Hutt Road will not be frosted, and as they grow they become less susceptible. The fact that the Director of Reserved, Mr. J. G. MacKenzie, is interesting himself in the planting indicates that the technical side will be attended to, and that Wellington may hope to see this part of the seaside drive resembling one day the pohutukawa-adorned rocky coasts of the North!