IN TARANAKI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20183, 27 June 1928, Page 9

IN TARANAKI

A MOTORIST’S VIEWS ROADS IN GOOD ORDER “Taranaki roads were always good, and they are improving,” said a Wanganui motorist to a “Chronicle” man yesterday. One or two of the badly potholed pieces of road on the highway to New Plymouth have been renewed and tarsealed,” he continued, “and in fact from Wanganui to New Plymouth through Stratford and Inglewood little of the road is not tarred. “I notice that permission has been asked of the Egmont National Park Board to put down bores to prospect sulphur deposits which were discovered in the Kaitake Ranges years ago,” he continued. “Wanganui has a large chemical and manure factory and should the deposits prove extensive and accessible it would perhaps pay the company to buy sulphur from Taranaki rather than import it from Texas or Morocco. If it paid the manure company it would pay our farmers. Many of the farmers in the district are topdressing extensively and cheaper manures would aid them materially.

“I would like to say a word about the gardens around and in New Plymouth,” he continued. “Like Wanganui, every garden has its ferns and native shrubs, but just out of the town there are numbers of holly trees at present red with berries. I have never seen any of the English Christmas trees in our city. But it is Pukckura Park that I admire most. If Virginia Lake were planted and cared for in the same manner Wanganui would have, if not tho best, at least a public garden to be very proud of.

“As you probably know the park was once a hill and a gullv covered with pine trees. Hard work lias transformed the area into a park with several hillocks and tiny lakes in the gullies. As the pines were cut down ferns and native trees were planted to take their place. The result is a botanical garden devoted to New Zealand flora which is perhaps unequalled in the Dominion. With all its natural advantages Virginia Lake could, within the space of a few years, be made even more beautiful and interesting than the New Plymouth park,” he concluded.