LACK OF INTEREST

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 224, 18 June 1936, Page 2

LACK OF INTEREST

Society to Hibernate For Year HORTICULTURAL WORK For a variety of reasons, chief of which is lack of interest among its members, the Wellington South Horticultural Society decided at the annual meeting in St. Thomas’s Hall, Newtown, last night, to hibernate for a year. The fact that there is only 17/5 in the bank did not unduly perturb the members; what they were concerned about was that so few people apparently cared whether the society lived or died, for there were only ten people present—six women and four men. The chilly night, the dim lights and the hard forms on which the members sat contributed to the dolorous atmosphere. For some time the meeting debated whether the moment had not arrived for the .disbandment of the society. “It is heartbreaking and like losing an old friend,” said a women member who had supported it staunchly for 24 years. Reasons for the moribund condition of the society were discussed. Some speakers ascribed it to the changing of the name in 1930 from the St. Thomas’s Horticultural Society to the present name. Others thought that the action of the parent body, the Wellington Horticultural Society, in forming boundaries had lessened the scope and activities of the South Wellington society. The principal cause, it was agreed, was lack of interest by the society’s own members. Mr. M. G. Grenslde moved:. “That future shows and meetings be held in abeyance for the time being, and that the property of the society (mainly cups and trophies) be vested in trustees.” The motion was carried without dissent.

Mr. Grenside commented, in answer to a suggestion that the parent society might have done more to encourage Wellington South, “If we ourselves can’t run a society that has been going for 30 years—well, it is a poor look out-” , ~ A member said that officers should lx> elected to act during the “vacation ’ or moribund period. Accordingly, the president, Mr. A. W. McGregor, who was presiding, and. the honorary secretary, Mrs. S. F. McLean, were re-elect-ed. A motion of sympathy with the relatives of the late Mr. J. W. Salmon, who had served faithfully for many years as treasurer, was carried in silence. _