BOTANIC GARDENS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 79, 3 April 1928, Page 6

BOTANIC GARDENS.

The Director of Kew Gardens, who has employed his short time in New Zealand to good purpose, has submitted to the Government a report on our botanic gardens which throws rather a new upon this interesting topic. Dr. Hill tells us, clearly and forcibly, that "botanic gardens do not exist in New Zealand except in title and by Act of Parliament." What he means, of course, is that in the public gardens in our principal towns no systematic attempt is niad6 to' collect or group the flora, and especially the native flora, in such a way as to promote or increase scientific, knowledge. "The present gardens," he tells us, "are really public pleasure gardens with a good horticultural display which is in no sense, a botanical arrangement." Possibly he does not sufficiently take into account the youth of New Zealand and the many calls made on the money available for scientific purposes. His recommendations constitute an ideal for future realisation. The most valuable portion of his recommendations, and that most likely to have an immediate effect, is his condemnation of the admission of exotic plants and animals into our reserves. He considers that the heather in the Tongariro National Park should be eradicated • without delay. There is ; some ] satisfaction in" having one's views confirmed by so eminent an authority but how is the eradication to be done ? Heather, appears to be as tenacious as the Scot that 1 treads, it.