CBOWING TREES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11303, 31 August 1922, Page 5

CBOWING TREES

A GREAT NATIONAL ASSET. WHAT IS BEING DONE. The propaganda of the New Zealand League, as far as Wellington is concerned at any rate, has been effective in a marked degree. The Concert Chamber of the Town Hall was last night filled to overflowing with an audience that listened with interest and attention for two hours to speeches and addresses about nothing else but the growing and planting and care and cultivation of Trees (spelt with a capital T). It was an encouraging sign for the league, which has a big object in view, and it demonstrated the fact tbat there is a very large body of thinking and thoughtful men and wqmen in the community who are only too glad to welcome enlightening and instructive discourses on matters of inThe Mayor (Mr R. A. Wright, M.P.> presided, and he and. Sir John Luke. M.P., had quite a lot to say about the needi for afforestation which is the direct result of the terrible toll of the bush that lia© been taken since the European occupation and the Dominion took definite proportions. A most pleasing part of the programme was a talk by Mr Johannes Andersen about the binds of the bush and their songs, and then Captain L. T. Macintosh Ellis, head of the Forestry Division, gave a most interesting * ‘Fores try Talk,” illustrated with lantern slides that provided convincing proof of the valuable work that is being done m that line right through New Zealand. For instance, millions of little trees are being distributed' to settlers and farmers, and the State is planting new forests at the rate of 4000 acres per I year. And (this was the conclusion and the local ooint that was made) within forty miles of Wellington there are over 150,000. acres of waste land which if planted in trees would produce annually 75,000,000 feet of timber, valued at £1,125,000, and would provide employment for 3000 citizens. There were many other item® on a most interesting programme, which concluded with a brief address hy Mr Will Lawson on the work of the Forestry League, of which ho is the organiser.