Change in leadership of Botany Division

Press, 28 March 1980, Page 14

Change in leadership of Botany Division

On Tuesday, Dr H. E. (Henry) Connor, who is well known to farmers in the province and particularly in North Canterbury, will replace Dr E. J. (Eric) Godley as director of the Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln. Dr Godley, who was director of the Crop Research Division before taking over his present post about 22 years ago, will continue to work in the division and will retain the position of chairman of the D.S.I.R. research centre at Lincoln. Dr Connor, who came to Christchurch in 1951 ahead of the movement of the Botany Division from Wellington, has been with the division since 1942. Wellington born, he attended St Patrick’s College and then Victoria University, where he graduated master of science in 1947.

Two years ago Lincoln College ’conferred on him the degree of doctor of science for his studies of New Zealand grasses and grasslands. In the year that he came to Christchurch the first edition of his book, “The Poisonous Plants in New Zealand,” was published. The second edition of this book was published in 1977. An acknowledged expert in this area, Dr Connor rates as two of the most important native poisonous plants in the country tutu and the fungus, Pithomyces chartarum, which is responsible for facial eczema in the North Island. Most of Dr Connor’s studies have been associated with The tussock grasslands—with the ecology of the grasslands and their history and the reproduction and general biology of native grasses. It was out of his interest in grasslands that he became involved first with the North Canterbury Nassella Tussock Board and then with the North Canterbury Catchment Board. He has represented his department on both. He was on the Nassella Tussock Board from 1952 to 1976. and recalls that he was fortunate enough (to be associated with it ati.a time when real progress began to be made with control of the weed grass because of opportunities that stemmed from developments in the chemical control of the weed and the availability of more money, staff and buildings and greater public participation in the destruction of the grass. . Since then Dr ‘Connor has continued his interest in nassella and its control through membership of the inter-departmental committee on nassella tussock.

. Dr Connor is .still a member of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, which he first joined in 1956. After the passing of the Water and Soil Act in 196*7* he became chairman of the board’s water committee, and on the work that has since been done in this area he says that they have been working in the interests of the province doing what they consid-

ered to be right and the best.

“I think that the experience of working with members of .these two boards has been for me pretty much an unparalleled opportunity to understand ’ Canterbury and its people,”, he reflected this week. In more recent years he comments that this work has moved off the mountains, which “seem to be getting , steeper every year,” to the laboratory but it continues to be on grass. He has published about 60 research papers as well as a number of more popular type publications. As a citizen and outside his departmental duties he has been a member of the Mount Cook National Park Board since 1959. “I am somewhat disappointed at the current proposals to change the administration of national parks,” he says. “A purely advisory board is removed from the money and therefore the action and responsibility of administering a park.” Dr Connor has edited several editions of the Mount Cook board’s handbook.

He has been assistant director of the Botany Division since 1974, and asked fthis week about his hopes'in his new role he said that the preparation of books about plants in New Zealand constituted a major task for the division. Two important volumes — one on the weedy flowering plants and the other on the grasses had ; y’et to be finished and he said he would like to be associated with the completion of both of these during his term as director.

Currently planning for the extension of the herbarium at the division was in progress and part, of this extension should materialise soon but the larger extension might take some time to come to fruition and he said that jie would like to be associated with the completion of that too. Dr Godley was born in Auckland and educated at Takapuna Grammar School and Auckland University College, where he graduated master of science in 1941. After service with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Italy he studied for two years-at Cambridge University in England gaining his doctorate of philosophy in 1948 for studies in cytology and genetics. Returning to New Zealand he took up a position as a lecturer in genetics at Auckland University in 1948 and then in 1951 he moved to the Crop Research Division at Lincoln as a geneticist and in the following year succeeded Dr O. H. Frankel, when he moved to Australia, as director of the division.

In 1958 Dr Godley transferred to the directorship of the Botany Division being more interested in wild plants than crop plants. •

Dr Godley’s main research interests have been in the reproductive systems of flowering plants, the vegetation of the subantarctic islands and the biogeographical relationships of the flora of New Zealand and South America.

In his new role with the division Dr Godley will be writing up further work on these subjects.

His studies have taken him twice to Campbell Island, twice to the Auckland Islands, once to the Antipodies Islands and in 1958/59 he was a member of an expedition to southern Chile organised primarily by the Royal Society of London, but in which the Royal Society of New Zealand also co-operated.

Commenting this week on the relationships between New Zealand and South American flora, he said that the flora of both regions constituted “a unique assemblage,” but certain elements were shared. The older shared elements, dating back perhaps millions of years, included such plants as

beech trees which could date back to the times when both areas were part of one large continent. There were also younger elements that had moved across the seas from New Zealand to South America in the space of thousands of years and among these were the kowhai. This movement from west to east had been encouraged by winds and currents and had resulted from floating seeds or distribution by long ranging birds. A further possible movement from west to east was ■ from South America to the islands of the southern oceans, which was a longer distance, and there was a. plant — a cushion plant (Azorella selago) — which came front the southern mountains of South America and which had reached Macquarie Island south of Australia.

Dr Godley is a former president of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society and is a member of the co-ordinating committee for beech research, which came into existence because of beech utilisation proposals for the West Coast and now has the responsibility for examining all Forest Service proposals in. the country for ecological reserves.