August 8th has special significance for the Dunedin Amenities Society as it was the official national day of Arbor Day established by our co-founder Alexander Bathgate in 1892. Bathgate believed that in creating Arbor Day New Zealand would create future generations of people who would care about their environment, he wrote “a well-grown tree is an object of beauty, and children would become all the better men and women if they had an eye for the beautiful in nature.” The Society have continued on in that vein with its Project Gold collaboration with the Department of Conservation over the last three years. This year staff and pupils from the Carisbrook School planted around 180 native trees including the beautiful golden Kowhai at Sidey Park in Caversham. It was a pleasure to work with the pupils and to see their hard work in completing the planting on a special day for the Society. Alexander Bathgate would certainly have approved. 
