CANTERBURY REVISITED

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22243, 6 November 1937, Page 18

CANTERBURY REVISITED

Mr Guthrie-Smith’s Impressions

INTEREST IN FARMS AND GARDENS In a walk through the beautiful beds of rhododendrons and azaleas at “Ham” yesterday, accompanied by Mr E. F. Stead and Mr R. A. Falla, curator of the Christchurch Museum, a reporter of “The Press” gathered from Mr W. H. Guthrie-Smith, his impressions of his to Canterbury. Mr Guthrie-Smith is called “New Zealand’s grand old man of natural history” and is an authority on farming, gardening, bird life, and natural forests. He is a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand and has written several books. In his short stay he has visited several gardens in Christchurch, in addition to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, several South Canterbury farms, and Mr James Deans’s plantations at Homebush. He left for Hawke s Bay last night, after being in Canterbury a week. “It is marvellous to be nearly 80 and still madly enthusiastic,” he said. He was delighted to be able to compare notes with Mr Stead on azalea and rhododendron growing, a common interest, and as he walked he found much to interest him. Later in the walk he showed the same keenness and enthusiasm when looking in some pear trees for a nest of a red-polled finch. When asked what he thought of the Botanic Gardens, he said that he was particularly interested in the new Leonard Cockayne Memorial garden, where an attempt was being made to reproduce mountain vegetation of the 5000 feet level. He thought the way the penwiper plant there was thriving already, indicated that those responsible were likely to meet with success. His brief stay in South Canterbury had been very interesting and very pleasant indeed, he said.

When Mr Guthrie-Smith came to New Zealand originally he went first to the Geraldine district; and he said yesterday that if he said what he really thought of South Canterbury he would arouse the antagonism of every province in the Dominion. Comparing Canterbury of to-day with Canterbury of 50 years ago, he was struck most particularly by the way rivers had worn away their banks, widened, and shallowed. Even in the streams where he used to fish in South Canterbury in the early days the point was very noticeable. The amount of erosion in the upper reaches of the rivers, the tremendous shingle slides now apparent and the denudation of vegetation, he thought was a sight of definite deterioration.

Travelling through Canterbury he was struck, too, with the growth of noxious weeds. This applied all over New Zealand; but something would have to be done soon to face the situation. In the North Island the blackberry pest was becoming very serious indeed; and there seemed tc be a great deal of gorse and broom in Canterbury.