A LOVER OF FLOWERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 17

A LOVER OF FLOWERS

BISHOP HOLLAND

HUTT SHOW OPENED

The new Bishop of Wellington (the! m. Eev. H. St. Barbe Holland) stood revealed as a lover of flowers when he opened the spring show of the Hutt Valley Horticultural Society yesterday afternoon. Bishop Holland confessed that he was extremely fond of gardening, and spoke interestingly of his rectory garden in Warwickshire. The president of the society (Captain W. Olphert) welcomed Bishop Holland, and said that, speaking personally, speech making was not one of his strong points, and this applied to most men of the sea, but a speech was not expected from him. The society and the whole district extended a hearty welcome to the Bishop. The Hutt Valley, he said, was the garden of the city of Wellington, and the Hutt Valley society was unique among the horticultural societies of New Zealand in that it was the proud possessor of its own building. This was the result of the wonderful foresight and endeavour of past presidents and committees. Bishop Holland, who was presented ■with a bouquet by little Miss Barbara Eedpath, apologised for the absence of Mrs. Holland, who was, like him, a lover of flowers, but tomorrow their small boy was leaving for. Wanganui School, and she had to stay at home ■for that purpose, much to her regret. When he was in England, he said, he spoke to various people, among them Lord Bledisloe, about Wellington, and the two things they all impressed on him was that Wellington was a windy place and that Wellington's garden was out in the Hutt Valley. Curious to say, his hat had not been blown away yet, and he had still to prove that Wellington was a windy city, but the second thing he had been told about Wellington was in a fair way of being proved, judging by the show. He could not think of such lovely flowers being grown in land that was not garden country. His one or two visits to the Hutt Valley had been spoilt by rain,. so he had to take the show exhibits as proof of what the soil could produce out here. This was the first time he had opened a flower show or had had anything to do with a horticultural society. He had been a lover of gardens since the days when his father had a rectory garden on the Tweed side in the north of England. Some of the loveliest gardens in Britain ■were on the^ border between England and Scotland. One of his causes of depression in leaving England, and it still continued to a certain extent,1 was that he had to leave a lovely old garden—one of those places that grew and were hot made. He had little use for horticultural landscape gardeners, and people like that. The garden grew out of one's own imaginative power and thought. He had lived in a garden that had been growing for 300 years. In it was the finest cedar in Warwickshire, overshadowing a great lawn which it had taken Nature centuries fo make. Also in the garden were Queen Anne wallSj yew walks, little rockeries, and a delightful abundance of vegetables and flowers characteristic of rectory gardens. His gardener had written to him to say that a more wonderful show of lupins had never been seen in the neighbourhood' before. He was glad that someone else was enjoying show of lupins, even though he was responsible for it. . PUZZLED IN NEW ZEALAND. Since he had come, to New Zealand he had been puzzled about-gardening, said Bishop Holland, Forrinstdnce, had 'se'en a crocus and a' golden-gleam nasturtium growing together. In England they would be six months apart. In the bouquet which had been given to him were violets and mignonette, which also did not come out in the same seasons in England. In Riddiford Park he saw nemesia growing near, the gate, and realised that in England it did not flower until the middle of summer. Some hoop-petticoat narcissus had been sent out to him, and he was a little puzzled what to do with ;it; whether it should be kept out of (the ground for another six months or not. He was going to do his best to build Up a garden in; Wellington, despite the smoke. ■■. When he was in England, said his lordship, he found that a garden gave an extraordinarily good indication of the type of person owning it. When he was going through his village, arid every place had an allotment, he would come to- a beautiful garden and say '.'That's a decent fellow," or, with reference to a garden. Overgrown with weeds and unkempt in other ways, "That fellow's no good." ; In .75 per cent, of the cases his judgment proved to be absolutely true. Bishop Holland said that he would like to sit down and let Mrs. Knox Gilmer, who was present; deliver the arresting speech she had given at the Dutch Fair. He agreed with every Word of it. He would like to put beauty in the place of ugliness, and if we could do that in our character and in the international field, what a different place the world would be. The garden seemed to be a wonderful parable of life. The garden lovers of the Hutt had begun to carry out that dictum here. He agreed with Mrs. Knox Gilmer that New Zealand should realise its potentialities as one of the gardens of the world. SPRING IN ENGLAND. In conclusion, Bishop Holland said that nothing was more lovely than spring in England. He remembered last May when he.was in a beech forest in Hampshire, and the sun coming down through the branches of the trees shone on a mass of wild hyacinths. New Zealand was not able to show anything like that yet, but who knew that perhaps, it might be possible in a future generation1. The Hutt Valley Horticultural Society was doing wonderful service in showing what a joy a garden- could'be. He hoped the society wotild go on from strength to strength under the able presidency of Captain Olphert. In addition to the names published in yesterday's "Post," Messrs. W. H. Wilson and C. F. Pilcher were in the official party at the opening ceremony-

While the number of: adult lawbreakers in Britain is decreasing, the percentage of juveniles is increasing. It rose from 370 per 100,000 of the population in 1933 to 439 in 1934.