“LOVELIEST IN THE WORLD”

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1928, Page 14

“LOVELIEST IN THE WORLD”

BEAUTIFUL PUKEKURA PARK. MR. HORTON PLEASED TO BE BACK “I have coma back more than ever satisfied that Pukekura Park is the most lovely natural park in the world," said Mr. T. H. Horton, superintendent of the park, to a News representative yesterday. Mr. Horton has just returned from an extensive tour of the British Isles, Europe and America with the New Zealand bowling team, “Of course, he added, there aro many more magnificent parks, and many that are much more educational from a botanic point of view, but though not comparable with many of these botanic gardens, Pukekura Park appeals to me more than any other place I have seen. It has a beauty all its own. and I am delighted to get back and see it once again. I love it more than ever.” Asked whether he had come back with any definite ideas regarding improvements to the park that might with advantage be effected, Mr. Horton said that any recommendations he might have were for the park board to consider. However, be would go as far as to say that he had seen several schemes of parte lay-outs that would suit various banks and nooks in Pukekura Park admirably. In all the parks he had visited abroad there seemed to be no lack of money with which to carry out improvements. He had been particularly impressed with some wonderful rockery systems carried out in conjunction with, landscape gardening. Especially were these evident at Dublin, Edinburgh, Vancouver and Victoria (British Columbia), the last mentioned being the finest in the world. One thing that pleased him particularly, said Mr. Horton, was that all through the Continent, British Isles, Canada and the part of the United States that the bowlers visited, he saw nothing in the way of ornamental trees and flowering shrubs, speaking generally, that were not to be found in New Zealand. Though there might be particular varieties and hybrids that were not at present growing in New Zealand, every class of plant was represented in. the Dominion, and grew better here, on the whole, than .in any of the other places. One very pleasing thing was to see in nearly all the parks and public gardens a good sprinkling of our New Zealand flora, principally veronicas and cordyline Australis (cabbage trees). Owing to the severe winters in other lands, many things that grew in New Zealand could not be grown elsewhere, but the cabbage trees were very popular.