Saving Jessfield Park The Municipal Council, is been compelled reluctantly to adopt a higher charge for admi sion 10. Jessfield Park, Shanghs most beautiful oper of this paris has. bet whelming attendance of which it deserves afte tremendous care and. artistic attention provided by. the Publi Department, Tu 1938 nearly one million and a quarter people visited the park and on one day. April 30, the number of visitors. was 30,37 ely, the eon nct of visilurs has not approached the standard of there visiting @ park In-any other part of the arid where due respect is paid 10 the nature of public. property, "and where. horticultural Fesolirees ure not Tade. the subject of public oot, The report "of the Works Committee describes the conditions at Jessfield Parke where Mower beds have been robbed and trampled on, park seats have been dragged all over the pilnee, "and litter has been distributed. so in~ Giscriminately that the principal features. of the park have been destroyed. It is now thought that' by increasing the admission fee for season, Uckets a certain degree of exclusiveness will maintained, and it "Is "hoped that this expectation will be fulfilled but there are no indications that. this is a_certainty. Public condiuey in Jessfeld Parke fora long time has been the subject. of much criticism, especially inthe correspondence columns of this Journal. land whether the Council's action will check. 1 isa mater for speculation, The general opinion that the park Isa" beautiful object "for destruction for very tte care oF attention pald by Chinese visitors, and the primary inten~ tion of its creation is being wrecked by. wn~ controlled crowds who pay not the slightest Yespect to general surroundings and the ions developed scheme of preparations but, prefer 10 run riot, break every rule of decent behaviour, and make It a rough-and-tumble resort where every form of mischievous activity may reserve full" indulgence. The -Counel's action may result In some improvement but while full cooperation by the Chinese visitors 10 the park Ix-absent there. willie no. improvement. " Tt seems an urgent need that the Tocal Chinese Authorities make some sort of appeal to their hallonals to save Jessfield Park. It cannot, be tone by any legislative action by the Municipal Jessfield Park The number of letters which have already been received regarding the Council's proposal to Increase the cost of admission tickets as a means of curbing the destruction which is being Wrought in Jesseld Park shows the interest Which is taken in that open space. Successive municipal gardeners have transformed it into a thing of great beauty, and it was with some dis quiet that a note in the Country Diary was ceived (elling of the manner in which the par through no fault of the municipal gardener, wi deteriorating, It seems. inevitable that' the large numbers who attend the Park should do_ serious damage to the turf, That apparently. cannot be avoided, except, perhaps, by the imitation of admission by increasing the price. Judging from correspondents' tetters on the subject, there is still much damage done by thourhiless people more bent upon their own particular interests than on. the necessity' of ce-operating with the authorities in maintaining the beauty of the place. The treading down of Mower beds, the tearing of branches from the shrubs, and actual purloining of plants are all matters which need to be dealt more finitely than by merely increasing the cost, admission. Incidentally it may be remarked that the increases are so small as not likely 10 be productive of much good effect. The suxgestion that the example of the French authorities should be followed and that a suflciently Jarge number of park-keepers should be continue ally on duty to preserve the amenities of the place seems to be the real solution of the prob-fern. The prosecution of a few people found cartying off municipal property inthe shape flowers and plants might also prove salutary, for, after all, those things belong to the cor munity which is. shall be preserved whole, rather than sion of those marauding instinels which' ai parently some humans do not appear to be able fo keep under control. If keepers are indeed the real solution, they should be employed, before the Jessfield Park is reduced toa mere ruin of its former self The Flower Show Phe anu Spring Hower show was held on Saturday face Club and despite many a otherwise, there does not appear any diminution interest. "Like the species which "is the shows, the cal horticulturists inaffeeted by any external jan rain, sunshine and some degree, possible to de-cerate the house Variety of flowers which would represent large outlay in many other parts of True, not everybody is able to own lot of land and grow his ow velopment of Shanghai's huge apartment house population has crowded tens of thousands of people into big. Blocks of buildings where only the trees in the streets are evidence that the city is situated in one of the most fertile
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.