Beautifying Roads.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20541, 16 February 1935, Page 21 (Supplement)

Beautifying Roads.

A plan to beautify roads in England by planting trees on the verges is advocated by Lieutenant-Colonel F. R. S. Balfour, who is an expert on forestry. He says: “I fear that a common attitude towards this matter of tree planting by road authorities in this country is one of indifference. With the advent of the motor-car and the consequent widening of existing and the creation of new roads, the necessity for their embellishment has become a matter of national duty unless this modern development is to cause a lasting diminution in the beauty of our land. To the man, such as myself, who cares for trees more than he does for fast motoring, it is surprising and somewhat disheartening to find that road authorities grudge the £2OO or so a mile that it may cost to plant the margins of a new thoroughfare which may have cost fifty times that sum or more to construct. Trees worthy of the roadside should have been transplanted many times in the nursery and none of bad unsjthmetrical shape should ever be selected.”