NATIVE FLORA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 86, 13 April 1926, Page 5

NATIVE FLORA.

« COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION. For some time past tbe New Zealand Society of Horticulture has been interesting" itself in the cultivation, collection "and preservation of native flora, for New Zealand's trees, ferns, and flowers, as New Zealand*s birds, are falling back before closer settlement, and already some forms of plant life, formerly very plentiful, are becoming rare to such a degree that the next generation may know nothing of them unless something is done to preserve them. The society is endeavouring to interest local bodies and the people generally in" the setting up of native plant reserves, and has already made good headway in Wellington and Palmerston North. " The general proposals of the society 'were brought before the Reserves Committee of the Wellington City Council at its last meeting by Mr. F. J. Nathan, president of the society. Dr. L. Cockayne, and Mr. T. Waugh, who represented the New Zealand Association of Nurserymen. The danger of losing much of the beautiful native flora and the lack of knowledge on the part of both young and adult New Zealanders of the plants of their own country were pointed out. The number and location of plant reserves were discussed, and in that regard it was remarked that one national native botanical garden waa impracticable, for the reason that plants from, say, the North Island, when transplanted to the South Island, would, in the course of a few years, lose their characteristics. It was hoped, there- ; fore, to induce the larger local bodies to establish their own New Zealand botanical gardens.

Information received by the local office of the Union Steamship Company states that the north wing of the Banff Hotel, in the Canadian Rockies, has bee n destroyed by fire, and that the central building has been slightly damaged. The message adds that tho south wing escaped damage and that the hotel will re-open on July 1. Pa* = ongers sailing by the Aorangi and Niagara will be in Ino wav inconvenienced by the fire.