Bunkum Holidays.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 278, 29 May 1907, Page 2

Bunkum Holidays.

New Zealand is certainly the land of bunkum holidays — days on which one is not supposed to work bocause they are set apart for the celebration of some great occasion which is not- celebrated at all. We have no objection to either the holidays or the celebrations, but if they are to be continued we certainly say that those responsible for their declaration should evolve some commonsense method of oarying out the original intention. The three days most in our mind in this connection are Empire Day, Arbor Day, and Labour Day. We have already dealt with Empire Day, and if the Government and the Education authorities take up the celebration in a somewhat similar manner to that laid down by Mr Adams at Foxton there will be no room for finding fault. The day we want partial- ( larly to refer to, however, is Arbor Day, which is gazetted a public holiday on July 24th. The gazette notice enjoins Mayors and Chairmen of local bodies to do all they can to encourage the planting of public reserves and other available lands with trees suited to the locality. One would have thought, in view of the staff of experts at the service of the Government, that there would have been no difficulty in the way of the central authority formulating a scheme of planting for the whole of the colony, under which the variety of trees most suitable for growing in each locality could be mentioned and supplies of young trees provided fiom the various State nurseries for public planting. In this way a skeleton scheme could be prepared which the residents in the various localities would, we feel sure, be only too glad to carry out to the fullest extent. \At present, a mere notice in the Gazette is as objectless as it is perfunctory, and if tho Minister placed this matter in the capable hands of the head of the Forestry Department, we feel sure an improvement would soon be manifest. *jt; .'