BOTANIC AND DOMAIN GARDENS. 
17 
Government House Grounds and Domain. 
The contract of Messrs. Walker and Halliday for the removal of the 
crest of the hill facing’ Government House, preparatory to the formation 
of the grand lawn, was an extensive piece of work, and the time 
necessarily taken in its execution, retarded planting operations in this 
quarter. Fortunately a bed of gravel was discovered during the 
necessary excavations, and the material has been utilised in the forma- 
tion of paths, gravel for which would otherwise have cost a considerable 
sum. The contract has been completed in a most satisfactory manner 
and the lawn has been coated over again with the top-soil which 
however in some parts is of an inferior kind. It has been carefully 
ploughed, harrowed, levelled, and sown with English grass, and will be 
planted with the Buffalo and Doub grasses, which, in such a dry 
situation will materially assist in the formation of a good sward. 
When the contract for removing the hill was finished, I lost no time in 
preparing for the planting ; some thousands of trees have been put in 
this season. The footpaths on either side of the drive to Government 
House are in my opinion a mistake. Considering that the curvature of 
the drive itself was not bold enough (as I reported last year) I ventured 
to alter it thirty yards south near the house. This was undoubtedly an 
improvement , but owing to the shortness of the drive, the said foot- 
paths if allowed to remain will prevent my planting near enough to 
the margin to shut out a portion of the building from the Entrance Gate, 
The alteration of the width of the walk around the lawn known as the 
cf pony drive” will as you suggested be carried out as speedily as 
possible. The curtailment of the gravel in front of the private and 
public entrances to Government House has according to your direc^ 
tions been altered. 
In planting the approach to Government House, I think it will be 
more in keeping with the surroundings, and certainly far more pictu- 
resque, to form large groups of trees and shrubs between which 
glimpses are afforded of green expanses of grass and masses of trees 
rather than to make a formal avenue of any particular kind of tree. 
There is nothing natural in avenues. They may in some instances 
be useful, as for example in the Fitzroy Gardens, where they form 
thoroughfares for the convenience of the public , but along such a short 
drive as that which has been made through Government House grounds, 
such an avenue would in my opinion be quite out of place. I do not 
think that the alternate planting of Moreton Bay Figs with Cedrus 
deodara, or Elms with Pinus insignis, or Wellingtonia gigantea with 
