A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 30, 6 February 1928, Page 6

A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.

We arc glad to welcome Dr. A. W. Hill to Auckland, and we have no doubt that he will find his visit to the Dominion and to this district in particular an interesting and valuable experience. As director of Kew Gardens, and therefore as head of one of the most complete and best organised botanical £nd horticultural institutions in the world, Dr. Hill is in reality an Imperial liaison officer, whose special function it is to provide botanical and horticultural information to allcomers. As the Christchurch "Press" puts it, "if the Gold Coast wants a suitable cocoa plant, if Fiji wants to know what disease is affecting the banana crop, if Australia wants to grow cricket bats, or if New Zealand should wish to start the beet sugar industry," Kew undertakes to supply the plants and to answer questions about them.

Our distinguished visitor has already expressed his admiration for the kauri, and we hope that his time-table will permit a visit to Waipoua and at least a cursory survey of the wonders of that great forest. What Dr. Hill has already seen of the native bush on the Waitakeres and in Cascade Valley has served him as a text for an admonition on the duty of saving the native bush, and we have no doubt that his convictions on this subject will be even stronger after he has seen Waipoua.