FORESTS AND PLAYGROUNDS

Evening Star, Issue 17767, 15 September 1921, Page 8

FORESTS AND PLAYGROUNDS

Mil D. TANNOCK’S REPORT, The City Council received last night a detailed report from Mr D. Tannock (superintendent of reserves) as to his visit to Europe to study the methods of afforestation, forest management, forest utilisation, and communal forests. In this report the following clauses are of outstanding interest :—■

Forests owned by French communes and villages were visited, and tho difference between these and tho privately-owned ones was very marked. The communal forests are managed by the Government Forestry Department, which makes a small charge for supervision. They are cut at the proper time, and are a considerable source of revenue to the villages to which they belong. These forests are a distinct contrast to tho common lands in England, which are covered with heath, broom, gorse, and blackberries) or the domains belonging to some of the towns in New Zealand, which arc a burden on the taxpayer instead of a ..ourcc of revenue; and at the sane time they are solving to some extent the problem of future limber supplies. The nursery at. Dnnkeld was the best kept and most satisfactory which I saw on my travels. It is designed to produce 500,000 trees a year. The soil is light and easily worked, and tho young trees look very'healthy. A. most interesting feature was the hybrid larch, a cross between the European and the Japanese species. In tho first generation Tho seedlings were more healthy and more robust than cither of tho parents; bub in tho second generation thero wero many reversions, which is Just what wo would expect. Kew is still by far tho finest, most complete, and most beautiful of all the botanic gardens. It combines scientific botany with landscape gardening in a wonderful way, and though there is now a charge for admission it is crowded cm holidays and Sundays. Tho Meadows, Edinburgh, is a good example of a "park devoted entirely to recreation. It is fairly level, and, with the Bruntsfiold links, which are really a part of it, is ninety-eight acres in extent. It is divided into east and west sections by a broad path through the middle, is properly fenced, and, with the exception of the avenues and paths round the margin, is all available for recreation purposes. At one end thero is a public drying green and many hard tennis courts, and, judging by the activity on tho day of my visit, they aro well patronised. There are four bowling greens, a place for quoting and archery, children’s playground and gymnasium, croquet lawns, cricket and football grounds, etc. On the east side tho grass is eaten down by sheep; and on the west, side, whore the best cricket grounds are. it is cut with mowers, the sheep being put on occasionally. Tho golf links cover thirty-five acres, and there are three short hole courses. All those recreation grounds aro made, maintained, and controlled by the City Parks Department, charges being made for their use.

In all the places I visited there is an unsatisfied demand for facilities for recreation, and efforts are being made by the Government and municipal authorities to meet this demand. The problems in England, Scotland, Wales, and the Continent aro the same as wo have in Now Zealand. There is a general complaint that the time allowed between the end of the football season and the beginning of the cricket season is too short to allow of proper topdressing and repairing, and, owing to the great demand for playing areas, these have to be allotted from week to week, which moans an enormous amount of work for the management, and disappointment to many intending players. In most cases ■the recreation grounds aro very rough, and in some cases all attempt at growing grass on them lias been given up, and they are covered with ashes, Which, though clean, aro very hard to.fall-om