LEITH VALLEY’S WANTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19102, 22 February 1924, Page 3

LEITH VALLEY’S WANTS.

TO THE EDITOB. Sib,—l notice that the people of Woodhaugh, Woodend, and Leith Valley want a tramway or a line of petrol buses to enable picnickers and admirers of beautiful scenery to visit at ease their picturesque district. They contend that this same scenery is an asset valuable enough to justify expenditure on improved means of transit. Then, why do they not look after and try to preserve this precious gift of Providence ? I suggest to the Woodhaugh and Leith Valley people that they immediately form a Scenery Preservation Society as some guarantee to the City Council and other residents and ratepayers of Dunedin that the picnicking resorts will not be destroyed by the picnickers within a few years after the tramway line is laid down or the petrol buses begin to run. If anyone doubts the need for such a society, let him go up Leith Valley, a few hundred yards past the paper mills, and see what damage has been done to a pretty bit of scenery this summer. lam afraid that some dry summer a fire accidentally or purposely kindled will sweep the whole northern slope of Leith Valley and leave naught behind hut a blackened waste. There have been many fires around Dunedin this summer which have by no means added to the attractions of our fair city. When from a hill I view the many hideous blots on the landscape environing Dun edin, I sometimes wonder if the indignation of the public would be visited on a pleasure seeker who, for his pleasure, smeared with blacking or charcoal some of the finest pictures in tho Art Gallery. Would Dunedin people allow such an outrage to become common? If not, why do they tolerate, with complacency or apathy, the periodical blackening and besmirching of the lovely natural pictures framed by the elopes of the bills surrounding our city?—l am, etc., ITili.-d weli.ru