BEAUTIFUL AUCKLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21344, 19 November 1932, Page 11

BEAUTIFUL AUCKLAND

CITY OF GARDENS GLORY OF MANY FLOWERS _ I HOMES EMBOWERED IN GREEN Brushed by the torch of a summer-like sun a myriad buds have been Icindled to fire and Auckland now is a city "wherein all rainbowed flowers are heaped together." Magically it seems the wintergreen splendour of suburban gardens has been splashed with colour. Cascades of pink and white tumble prodigally over rocky walls; orange and red and flaming geranium pay massed tribute to the sunlight; mauve ancf blue reach upward in challenge to the sky. Behind all the ordered arrangement of this nature-given bounty is seen the love which the Aucklander has for his home. Garden hedges shorn with geometrical precision flank the streets for many a mile, bronze green against the shaven lawns on which the thrushes walk. Shrubs and trees of a hundred shades of green make delicate harmony. Here and there a creeper-clad wall speaks of another home in an older land. Streets ol Park-like Beauty In Remuera, Epsom and Mount Albert, to name but three of the nearer suburbs, can be seen street after street of parklike beauty. Especially is this effect obtained where leafy trees border the way and strips of new-mown grass separate the footpaths from the road. While the planting of trees is a matter for the local authorities, it is the individual householder who labours with lawnmower and shears inside and outside his own front gate so that the street may be beautiful for the enjoyment of all. Perchance he plants also banks or beds of brilliant flowers to delight the eye of all who pass. Many such clusters or walls of streaming splendour may be seen in Auckland now. In Gillies Avenue, almost within a stone's throw of the tramline, is a seen* of cool tranquility. On one side the treeclad slope rises steeply in a mass of many greens, leaves resting aglint in . t}ie sunshine or stirring drowsily, playthings of a casual breeze. On the other side the weathered tiles of a slanting roof reach down behind the tree ferns and puriri | trees, down almost until they reach the line of the green-arched hedge crested with white roses. Over all is the song of birds. Blaze of Geraniums

Farther along is a lawn shaded deeply by many trees, through the trunks of which glint the vivid reds of roses, ger- • aniums and snapdragons. The house 'is .bidden by leafy branches as first one sees it, save for a peep of cool stone steps above the green of grass. Then, turning away from the profusion of tree-clad rock so reminiscent of a Sicilian vista, the eye is all but overwhelmed by the wonderful symmetry of a rounded hedge. Wherever one passes geraniums blaze on a background of green. Striking ia effect are the long, straight lines of geraniums, like red-coated soldiers, guarding the approach to more than one house in Upland Road, Remuera. The seeker for beauty may turn from here to a green bank that rises until it reaches a row of cream and white houses. At the foot of the bank runs a low rock wall festooned with geraniums, marigolds and flaming cannas. Cream and white roses and bright green shrubs march up he slope in bright array.

Turning again to reach the Remuera Road one comes upon a scene of most arresting beauty. It is a study in delicate shades like a glowing water colour. A little white and green house stands upon a bank, and over the front climbs a beautiful pale pink rose. A small bricked terrace below is planted with pink and mauve stocks, then the green, shrubdotted slope comes down to a wall that carries along the top a bed of exquisitelycoloured antirrhinums of all shades of pink, with here and there a splash of orange, yellow and red. s City of True Homes

All the spare-time toil which has gone to the making of such an attractive city bespeaks a civic pride, perhaps unconscious, and a deep home-loving instinct that has urged , the Auckl;*ider to surround himself with beauty and to glory in the fashioning of it. He knows that living in a flat is one thing, and' a good thing in some circumstances, but he knows that to live in a home of.his own, grubbing in the soil and perspiring in the sun so that the earth may be lighted with a blaze of sweetness, brings a 6ense of satisfaction and well-being that is beyond price. Such humble labour, albeit with such a rich reward, makes a true home of the humblest house. If for 110 other reason than this Auckland may justly be called a city of true homes. How great is the contribution to the whole splendid effect made by the styl.es of the dwellings themselves is a matter upon which architects may disagree. The inexpert eye, seeking only beauty, and perhaps jaded with the vision of monotonous and naked brick, will assuredly find beauty in plenty. " picture Book " Houses Roofs of red or green and walls of many hues, from white to pale-flushed"-pink, peep attractively through the vivid green of trees. Sleeping porches and quaint little attic windows look out over wide vistas of sea and hilly range. Houses which might have been lifted from a child's picture book nestle among palms, ever-green native and English trees. W ell might a visitor to Auckland s suburbs pause a thousand times and rub his eyes to assure himself that, he is not in fairyAithough there is a profusion of trees in private gardens there is still plenty of scope for tree planting in the streets. Wherever they do appear the scene is enhanced a hundredfold, but many streets could be considerably improved by the planting of trees. If every ugly power pole was changed into a tree the picture would be complete. "Ihe beautiful native kowhai, with its golden blossom suggests itself as a wonderful ornament if its planting is practicable. But trees or not, the Aueklander con tinues to pour an amazing amount of energy into beautifying what lies to hand, and the result is a city that charms with a potent spell.