“BROOKLANDS” HANDED OVER

Evening Star, Issue 21667, 12 March 1934, Page 12

“BROOKLANDS” HANDED OVER

NOBLE GIFT TO NEW PLYMOUTH [Per United Press Association.] NEW PLYMOUTH, March 10. • “ Brooklands,” the beautiful estate of sixty acres of the late Mr Newton King, together with seven acres and a-half of unspoiled natural bush, which latter was given to the town by Mr T. C. List and Mr C. A. Wilkinson, M.P., was formally handed over to-day. The chief speech was made by His Excellency, Lord Bledisloe. “ Brooklands.” which has been given to the town by the trustees of Mr King’s estate in lieu of a cash bequest of £IO,OOO, has been added to Pukekura Park, making a public park the beauty of .which, Lord Bledisloe said, was without peer in the dominion. The estate comprises extensive lawns, flower gardens, glasshouses, native bush, and lakes. It contains in addition a magnificent puriri tree, said to be 2,000 years old, and a huge spreading Spanish chestnut, beneath which, enclosed as in a great greenhouse. hundreds of people to-day took afternoon tea. In the presence of several thousand people, with the gardens bathed in sunshine, speeches were made by Mr Tmby King on behalf of the family, the mayor (Mr H. V. Griffiths), Mr E. Pi.. C. Gilniour, Mr James M'Leod (chairman of the Park Board), Mr S. G. Smith, M.P., and Lord Bledisloe. The Governor-General spoke eloquently of the beauty of the flora and fauna of New Zealand, and appealed for their preservation. They would be a source of tremendous value to the country in the future, he said, as attractions to tourists, who would come in hundreds of thousands and bring greater wealth to the dominion, than any of the other great industries. Anyone who foiled a giant native tree or needlessly destroyed native bush destroyed an aesthetic asset of untold potent value. Lord Bledisloe was presented with a souvenir album of views of “ Brooklands” and “ Pukekura,” which His Excellency, as a photographer, said he had never seen equalled.