ARBOR DAY IS DEAD

Evening Star, Issue 12874, 25 July 1906, Page 4

ARBOR DAY IS DEAD

HE WHO LOVES TREES LOVES OTHERS BESIDES HIMSELF.

The original home of Arbor Day was the State of Nebraska, U.S.A. A proclamation made in 1888 in that Stiito read : —“ Arbor Day Proclamation.—• “To the People of Nebraska,—Springtime is at hand, the time to plant trees. /Therefore, in accordance with an appropriate custom now well established and recognised by law, I hereby designate the 23rd day of April, 1888, as Arbor Day. And I do earnestly request the people throughout this State to plant trees, Plant Trees, PLANT TREES; and the present and future generations null rise up and call you blessed.” In 1892, thinking colonists in New Zealand wore awakening to the fact that something must be done to replace the clearing of the native bush. The matter became one of general interest and talk, and, thanks largely to the efforts of the initiators of the movement, foremost among whom was Mr Bathgate, the Government, in that year, proclaimed Arbor Day (a Wednesday at the end of July or beginning of August) a holiday throughout the colony, and expressed the wish to see Arbor Day become thoroughly recognised, “and the hope that all local bodies, school teachers, etc., would do their utmost to promote tree-planting in suitable places. That was fourteen years ago, and today Arbor Day is but a name in Dunedin —a day whose advent is chronicled in the papers. Tho local bodies and the Education Department, seemingly, aro not aware of its advent until they see it so recorded. Arbor Day is a day set apart not only for the beautifying of the landscape; it is a day set apart for the citizens to sow the seeds of future industrial prosperity by providing timber for future industrial purposes, and by providing for the proper conservation of climatic conditions through the promotion and preservation of forest growth in elevated situations.

The gradual loss of enthusiasm for an important movement is to be deplored. But it is not by any means unexplainable. It was very generally pointed out at the inception of the movement that, the sanction of Government once given, it would be better, considering the wide range of the geographical position of the colony, for the local bodies in each province to fix the day. This was apparently not done. A day was fixed by Government. Mr Bathgate was interviewed this morning, and he says that ho attributes the decline of the movement to this fact, that the day fixed is not suitable to all parts of the Colony. In the interior and high lands the ground is usually frostbound at this time, and tree-planting is not possible. If the date were fixed for springtime it would make no difference. The time that .suits Otago would not suit Auckland. That is what killed the movement, the fixing of an arbitrary date for the colony. In the meantime, whatever may be the reason, Arbor Day is dead in Dunedin Any school arrangements that may have been made have been made outside the Department’s knowledge. There has been no concerted action in any quarter, municipal or other, to plant trees, Plant Trees, PLANT TREES. The original suggestion was that the Council should have the conduct and direction of the proceedings.

np—an impressive and imposing programme. But the old enthusiasm is dead, and it is a great pity. FEILDING, July 25. Beyond observance at the Government Bnildingj the holiday for Arbor Day was not kept here.