FLOWER SHOW

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 63, 12 September 1939, Page 4

FLOWER SHOW

PROJECT DOUBTFUL

CENTENNIAL YEAR

Because of the outbreak of war and the possibility of shortage of labour in the horticultural trade, it is doubtful whether the National Centennial Flower Show planned for next year will be held. At a meeting called last evening to discuss the project and form committees, conflicting views were put forward, and it was decided to delay decision for at least seven days to allow the bodies concerned to express their opinions. Mrs. Knox Gilmer, president of the Wellington Horticultural Society, who presided, raised the question of! whether the show should be held. She said the Governor-General had appealed to citizens to carry out their normal routine as far as possible. It was essential, she said, that they, as horticulturists, should celebrate the Centennial, and by so doing show New Zealand the development that had taken place. There was no more fitting place for the show than at the Exhibition, and she would not like to be the first to back out. It was Wellington's turn to have a national flower show, to be held during what was called National-Horticulture Week, at the end of January. So far it was not imagined that there would be any financial burden on suburban societies. The intention was that the Wellington Horticultural Society and the Hutt Valley Horticultural Society should bear a third of the cost, the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture a third, and the Horticultural Trades Association of New Zealand a third. THE GOVERNMENT'S VIEW. Mr, J. W. Heenan, Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs, said he could assure the meeting quite definitely that the wish of the Government was that all normal activities of life should be continued up to the point where it became absolutely impossible to carry on. Mr. Fraser had stressed the fact that there was absolutely nothing in the present situation that should give rise to the feeling that anything should be abandoned or drastically curtailed. There was definitely nothing on the horizon to show that they should abandon proposals made over the last three years for • celebrating the Centennial. To drop anything, even for one year, was to go back deplorably.

Mr. J. G. MacKenzie said he would like an assurance from the trade that it would grow to support the show —its support and support from outside Wellington was most important, and personally he thought they should not go ahead with the show.

Mr. T. Waugh said the last war made them realise what would be the difficulties in running a show. To the trade a show was expensive, and the main expense was labour. Most nurserymen were fit, and in the Great War 75 per cent, of the younger men went away. In one nursery 21 out of 22 went away. There could, however, be no expression of opinion from the trade until after a meeting.

Mrs. G'ilmer said that if it was decided to go ahead, more than 13,000 square feet of space was available at the Exhibition.