Untitled

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10448, 29 August 1905, Page 3

A curious old woman named Mrs Gallagher appeared at the Prahran (Vie.) Police Court last week on a charge of vagrancy. The constable- who arrested her said she roosted up m trees m the parks at night. Owing to her arboreal inclinations, she appears to have been pretty hard to locate, and it was during one of her excursions to earth m search of "tucker" that Constable Carter "sighted" her m the open, and ran her down before she could take to a tree. The old lady stoutly denied that she was a vagrant, and said she worked for her living. Also, she gave the Bench to understand that she was living the "simple life" under medical instruction. "The dochtor tould me I musht go out' into ther open air fer me eye," she remarked ; "an", sure, where would I get it fresher thin up a tree?" She was sentencd to 12 months' imprisonment. Mr W. Adams, of Greendale, Canterbury, who is an expert and an enthusiast m arboriculture, has a good word to say for the generally despised pi mis insiguis, which lie regards as a. valuable timber tree, and prophesies that the time, will come when it will supply a great deal of the cheap timber required m the colony for packing purposes. The common notion that the pinus imsignis is useless, except fox* shelter purposes, is, he states, quite erroneous m. the light of his oxperience, the oldest trees .having developed heart wood which promises to be durable. In its native habitat m America the tree is confined to a small area of rocky coast m Monterey, and it has never there shown the development that it will attain m New Zealand. If the ta % ecs are planted close together, so as to prevent their ■spreading laterally, they will grow into tall, .straight trees, and will supply very useful timber. In 1873, just blnrty-two years ago, Mr Adams planted pinus insignis seed on some light land at Groendale, and he proposes to put a sawing plant into the plantation shortly. Some of the trees are over 100 ft m heigh, with tvrunks from tliree to four feet m diameter at the base and capable of yielding several hundred feet of timber. * He lwis built a stable of pinus insignis timber, and has found it quite satisfactory, and ho confidently prophesies that m the not distant future the tree will be much more honored m the colony tlmn it is at present. * .