Readers' views: Non-native trees in Queen St

Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard has defended the decision to chop down 20 non-native trees in Queen St, saying the city should be a slice of the South Pacific and not an imitation of Europe. We asked readers for their opinions; the following is an edited selection:

I am extremely disappointed with the decision to remove the existing trees in Queen St.

The deciduous trees are finally becoming established and they provide a softening effect against the backdrop of buildings, let in light during winter and provide much needed shade during the summer months. The existing trees are an asset to Queen St.

To cut the exotic trees down and replace them with nikau palms and cabbage trees is abhorrent. Even if the existing trees were diseased and needed replacing, nikau palms and cabbage trees are not suitable for an inner-city environment.

Nikau palms like to grow in the bush under other trees, and cabbage trees, although attractive in some settings, make a huge mess with their long leaves dropping throughout the year.

I hope common sense prevails.

Lyn Barton.

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Please, please, please, keep the deciduous trees in Queen St. They look so beautiful and soften the hard outline of the buildings. I am a great lover of cabbage and nikau trees but not in Queen St, where they would look so bare and clinical and be very messy.

Lana Peat.

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Replacing worn exotics with natives is a fantastic idea. It is a shame the Herald seems to be trying to drum up opposition to the work.

Miles Brown.

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With the debates over Kitchener Place, Vulcan Lane and the Queen St trees, we are seeing the result of the large increase in rates this year. Auckland City councillors and staff have a lot more money to spend and are busy dreaming up unnecessary projects to spend it on. Roll on the next election.

I have heard from a confidential council source that the next project to stop the centre of Auckland looking like a European city is to demolish all the buildings on Queen St and replace them with ponga and fern huts and remove all the asphalt and replace it with the original clay and mud surface from 1840 ...

Don Shelton.

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Architects and planners can justify just about anything with their politico-cultural gobbledegook. An ugly, corrugated-iron building is labelled as "honest". A pine tree on top of One Tree Hill is "culturally insensitive". Nikau palms and cabbage trees on Queen St will give it a New Zealand "feel". But don't the lush mixture of exotics and natives already there represent our "vibrant, multicultural society with roots to our colonial and ethnic history?" See what I mean? Leave the healthy trees alone, add some new natives by all means - but spare us the pretentious justification, please.

Barry Schmidt.

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I am hugely disappointed at the thought of removing elegant and handsome trees such as plane, claret ash, and liquidambar from Queen St that are now established and giving such beauty, shade and joy.

Cabbage trees, albeit native, are unsuitable in such a street setting. They are dusty and messy, their fronds are not readily bio-degradable and they will not give the desired value as shade trees of long-term beauty like the current ones.

I implore those making such decisions to reconsider leaving the trees alone.

Helena Stretton.

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I am appalled that Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, in the face of the 98 per cent opposition as reported in the Herald, is continuing to support the proposal to remove from Queen St the non-native trees that provide much-needed greenery and shade and replace them with native cabbage trees and nikau palms, which do not provide either greenery or shade.

Mr Hubbard claims that residents opposed to this action don't fully understand the situation, but I note that he does not want to find out what they really think by continuing with a non-notified resource consent application.

If any of the existing trees need to be replaced, they should be replaced with exotic trees, and many more of these non-natives planted throughout the central city to provide much needed greenery and shade.

D. Mairs.

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New Zealanders hate mature trees and are always chopping them down and planting little trees in their place.

As for Queen St portraying a South Pacific city, that's a joke. What do they plant in Asia, since Queen St is more Asian than South Pacific.

As for chopping the trees, now is the only time that Queen St looks any good. The dappled light of the exotics softens the harshness of a soulless street.

If they must replace the trees, why not plant natives in between and let them grow side by side?

Laurine.

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Some correspondents have pointed out the effect of replacing the present trees with New Zealand natives; that of mess. Cabbage trees (really a lily), constantly shed their leaves, which being stringy do not rot but dry and lay around for months.

Has Mr Hubbard and his team of theorists counted the costs of cleaning, or is a South Pacific city going to be covered with dead leaves?

After the Vulcan Lane fiasco and now this, I find it extremely amusing, and a sad comment, that Mr Hubbard, who made such a point in his election advertisements that he would listen to people, has clearly demonstrated that he does not listen to the people of Auckland.

Andrew Beavis

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I suggest the city councillors call for a specialist scientific report on the viability of cabbage trees and nikau palms in Queen St. The report may surprise them. Cabbage trees and nikau palms, for healthy growth, require moist warm surroundings.

They look awful if half-dead, drop heavy fronds on the ground, require constant trimming to look neat and have little colour. Cabbage trees are very prone to disease. In their natural surroundings they are great.

Liquidambars look magical in the autumn; their leaves can be easily swept up by a modern vacuum cleaner and their starkness in winter reminds us that spring is not far off.

As an alternative option, leave the liquidambars and add the cabbage trees and nikau, then compare the result in 10 and 20 years.

John Peat.


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What is the council thinking of? Trees are not a fashion accessory, they are living beings, deserving of our respect and care. By all means take out any that are in poor condition and replace them with natives, but spare those that will provide beauty and shade for years to come.

One cannot help feel concern that the sole arborist who has recommended the death sentence for these trees has a vested interest in their removal, as he would be providing the replacements.

Remember what happened to John Banks when he rode roughshod over the wishes of the people?

Terry Kennaway.

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Why would anyone take rainforest trees and plant them in a concrete jungle? They will be as comfortable as Eskimos in equatorial Africa.

Nancy J. Butler.

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The council has my full support in getting rid of exotic trees and replacing them with natives in Queen St. Over the past few years, three nikau have been planted in Queen St, two in Karangahape Rd and very recently tall mature ones planted on the Ponsonby Rd side of K Rd.

I congratulate the council for doing this. At long last these magnificent palms have reached the heart of the city and not just our city parks. The nikau is the "coconut tree" of Aotearoa and coconut trees line the roads of the islands of the Pacific. Why can't we have the same here?

Jason Greenwood.

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I am appalled that the council is even considering removing those lovely graceful, shady trees that are giving the city a character of its own. What a waste of our money. Why do we have no say in the matter?

Joan Rutter.

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The Queen St tree massacre surely cannot go ahead. It is thanks to the Herald that we, the public, now know what is going on. The council couldn't give a damn about public opinion. Who are these people who decide that just because cabbage trees thrived when Queen St was a swamp, they will also love growing in a concrete jungle?

Suzanne Mexted-Dykes.

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I would like to lodge my dismay at the total waste of money and energy in felling perfectly good, well-established trees along Queen St.

Why not simply add to the already existing ones? Why the obsession with having only unattractive natives?

Charles.

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The exotic trees should be retained as their growth habits will offset the angular city buildings and provide shade in summer.

The native trees suggested will drop a lot of mess - possibly striking passersby. These natives have a place in local bush areas and landscaping in private gardens (where they also make a lot of debris).

Lois Hill

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We oppose the proposed replacement of the existing non-native trees in Queen St and agree with architect Julie Stout that we do not need misguided nationalism in the Queen St landscape, just comfort and pleasure. Replacement is akin to vandalism.

Lindsay and Neville Darrow.