PLANTING THE ISLAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 6

PLANTING THE ISLAND

THIRD ATTEMPT

TREES NOW GUARDED

Planting the island at Island Bay is a problem that has not yet found a satisfactory solution, ,but both the Island Bay Municipal Electors Association and the Wellington Beautifying Society are keen about it. At the annual meeting of the association last night, Mr. S. Nelson reported having planted fifty trees yesterday, protected by guards. Only a few of the plants put in last year were still alive, but they had not been planted in as careful a way as those planted yesterday. The guards were made of close-meshed netting closed in over the top, and held down by iron rods on each side. Mr. H. H. Miller, who is secretary of the Beautifying Society as well as a member of the association, said that the idea of the guards was to protect the trees from stones started rolling down the hill by boys who climbed about on it. Stones would now only clash on the guards. The first lot of trees planted by the Wellington Beautifying Society numbered nearly 70, but there was none surviving. On the second attempt last year some 60 were planted, of which there were about a dozen left. The trees planted yesterday were small, but when bigger trees were obtained they were going to go over the ground again. With older trees there should be a higher percentage of survivals, provided it was not an excessively dry summer. He was pleased that the association had promised £10 towards the society's . expenses. The society had put in a similar amount. It only needed a showing on the island to encourage further support from the public. What had been planted on this occasion were pittosporums, ngaios, flax, pohutukawas, and veronicas. Mr. Nelson remarked that several oi the last plantings were now three feet high, but these had been three-year trees when planted, and that was what was evidently required instead of the small trees. Donations of the older trees were hard to obtain; they would probably have to buy them. A discussion followed on the possibility of excluding the general public, orfinding a way to control people who went to the island in the summer. It was eventually decided to ask the City Council to erect notices that anyone found damaging trees would be fined £10.