THE RICCARTON BUSH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14169, 18 September 1906, Page 6

THE RICCARTON BUSH.

At the land rates ruling in Riccarton just now £SOOO is certainly not an. excessive price to pay for sixteen acres of native bush, and if the land could be acquired outright for the money few private speculators would hesitate to buy it. But the proposal to acquire the Riccarton Bush will be decided on other than financial grounds, and we think the public generally would warmly approve if the local bodies made generous contributions to the purchase fund. The City Council took the proper course last evening in referring the matter to a special committee. We trust that the report will be favourable. The bush is the only patch of original 'forest left standing near Christchurch, and is therefore of exceptional interest and value. Under present conditions it is not accessible to the public, and though the Deans family has shown always the keenest anxiety to preserve the forest from destruction it cannot bo expected that private owners will for ever resist the temptation to cut up so valuable n piece of land in the suburbs of a growing city. The purchase of the bush now by the public would put its preservation beyond doubt, and it is not likely that the area will ever bo available at a lower price than that asked for it to-day. These are the considerations that should weigh with the City Council and the other local bodies, and the purchase committee, which includes most of the prominent citizens, will "he the more anxious to have a favourable reply from the Council because such a lead would put the raising of the necessary money practically beyond doubt.