THE CITY RESERVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22708, 22 October 1935, Page 11

THE CITY RESERVES

TO THE EDITOR. Sin, —In all the letters which I have read regarding the destruction or preservation of native bush I have noticed no reference to two facts which would appear to be of groat importance—first, the sowing of English grass; secondly, the planting of North Island trees. Just recently I was walking through the devastated area which was once the Woodhaugh Bush reserve, and under a tall kowhai in full flower I noticed a man raking off all the pocly-pody fern and throwing it with dead sticks on a bonfire which was burning close by. Round fho kowhai hung trails of dead “bush lawyer,” and the ground at the foot of tire tree was absolutely bare, ready for the sowing of English grass. Under normal conditions a kowhai tree drops its seeds in the shelter of “bush lawyer,” supple jack, or other creeper, and finds a perfect seed-bed in the carpet of ferns and mosses and damp soil, but when English grass is sown it springs up and grows so quickly that the slowly germinating kowhai is literally strangled at birth and has no chance of survival. Do the ratepayers of Dunedin really prefer English grass with sow thistle, docks, and chiokweed as seen, for instance, in the area cleared some years ago behind the George street bridge, to mosses, ferns, and seedlings of native trees? if any ratepayer will take the trouble to examine the patch of cleared bush at the end of Duchess avenue he will find that under the fuchsia boughs the gaps have been carefully planted with puriri, rewarewa, and karaka—all trees which flourish in the North Island; while if they live at all in Dunedin they take many years to grow. These same trees have been planted in most seemingly contrived gaps along the Cemetery road, and neatly tied to tall stakes—all ready for mis chievmifi boys to break. In tbe Upper Gardens, where creepers, seedlings, and undergrowth were all cleared and burnt last winter the area is now carpeted with English grass and weeds, and in the upper portion a grove of pohutukawa has been planted. The pohutukawa is a very beautiful tree, but

it belongs entirely to the north of the North Island, and is hardly likely to survive for long the frosts of a severe winter or two in Dunedin. On that particular slope grew many Dunedin plants and trees and ferns—coprosmas, matipos, wineberry, kowhai, a rare “ hush lawyer,” and a sweetscented clematis with many other natives —all of them perfectly hardy and giving no trouble at all to the Dunedin Gardens staff and a great deal of pleasure to many Dunedin ratepayers. The city reserves are the property or the ratepayers, who provide the money for their maintenance, and it is for the ratepayers to insist that their money m used with economy and wisdom.—l am, etc-# Bush Lover.