Untitled

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21807, 12 June 1936, Page 10

Geologically speaking, it was not so very long ago that there was no Cook Strait separating the two islands of New Zealand, remarked Mr J. Scott Thomson when lecturing to members of the Wellington Horticultural .Society on the South Island’s vegetation. Yet, he con-, tinued, there was the remarkable fact that out of the 1430 species of plants found in the South Island no fewer than 505 were not found in the North Island. The nature of the South Island made it the headquarters of New Zealand’s alpine flora, and it was interesting to note that somes species if lichens found there were the same as those observed on the slopes of Mount Everest. “Hard-surfaced roads are not always an advantage,” said the chairman (Mr F. J. Williams) at the monthly meeting of the Automobile Association (Otago). Mr Williams said that on sealed roads speeds were greater, and in winter, especially in shady places, these roads became dangerous. It had been found last winter on the Port Chalmers road that conditions easily became hazardous, and on one occasion, before sand could be put on the road, several accidents had occurred. “That,” he concluded, “is the trouble they are going to have in Central Otago if they go in for sealed roads.”