DR HILL HERE

Evening Star, Issue 19771, 23 January 1928, Page 6

DR HILL HERE

FAMOUS HORTICULTURIST ARRIVES UNANNOUNCED STEAMER DIVERTED FOR SICK FIREMAN Dr William Hill, director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, left England on November 3 for a visit to Australia and Tasmania. He spent a month in the Commonwealth, touring every State except Queensland (which State he proposes to inspect on his way back to England), and then prepared to come across to New Zealand, having been invited by the Government to extend his tour so as to include our dominion. He left Melbourne by the steamer Manuka, bound for Milford Sound and Wellington, intending to start his journey through New Zealand with an inspection of Nelson and Westland. The steamer was heading for Milford, the passengers calculating on reaching Wellington to-morrow, when on Saturday one of the firemen was taken very seriously ill. Luckily the passengers included Dr Gordon, who operated surgically at 12 o’clock that night, and the vessel’s course was changed, she being put at her fastest pace on the way to the Bluff, where she arrived at 6 o’clock last night. At Bluff some New Zealand friends of Dr Hill suggested that he should alter his itinerary and step ashore at Bluff. This he saw to be wise counsel, so he slept at Invercargill last night, and came to Dunedin by the express train this morning, reaching our city at 11.20, and being received on the platform by Mr D. Tannock, Sir Geor tj j Fenwick, Sir James Allen, Mr T. K. Sidey, Mr J. Horn, Mr J. M. Dickson, the Hon. J. A. Hdnan, Crs Larnach and Mitchell, and driven to his quarters at the_ Grand Hotel. , Mr Tannock hurriedly made arrangements whereby Dr Hill will be able to employ his time in Dunedin to advantage. This afternoon he was to go over the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, then dine with Sir James and Lady Allen, and in the evening there is to be a meeting of horticulturists and others at the Savoy ; where it is hoped that Dr Hill will give a lecture. Appointments are also made for a visit to the Thomson Bros.’ collection of native plants at Wakari ; and to Sir George Fenwick’s collection at Mornington, and the doctor is to go north by the 11.34 train to-morrow. On his way back to the Old Country the doctor is to call at Java and Singapore, and he expects to be in England again in about twelve months from the date that he left.

At Invercargill Dr Hill was delegated to meet Mr C. J. Macpherson, superintendent of the Public Gardens there. He says that Mr Macpherson was one of the best students at Kew in his time, being a very bright young fellow. The doctor looked forward with special pleasure to meeting Mr Tannock, ot whom he had heard a great deal. Mr Tannock was at Kew before his (Dr Hill’s) time, but he is well remembered there. Another Kew gardener whom he would be glad to see in Dunedin was Mr Anderson, now on Mr Tannock’s staff. This is Dr Hill’s first colonial tour. It is the first occasion on which a director of the Kew Royal Gardens has ever been abroad or ever been able to send a senior officer touring. Asked if he felt himself in a foreign country in New Zealand, Dr Hill said that the meeting with men he had known and of whom he had heard gave him a homely feeling at once, and that feeling was "deepened by his hearing tho'' Cambridge, chimes wherever he went.

“Cambridge chimes?” one of the receiving party interjected; “ ours are spoken of as the Westminster chimes,” whereupon he quietly remarked, with the courteous smile that seems natural to him, that the so-called Westminster chimes were the chimes of St. Mary’s at Cambridge, and copied by Westminster. _

In the rourse of a short interview Dr Hill stated that the Gardens at Kew cover 300 acres and employ 250 hands, with a scientific staff of forty. It is the headquarters of botanical work for the Empire. The originating cause of the tour was an invitation from the Commonwealth Government for him to go out and undertake such scientific and industrial research as would be possible in the time at disposal, make a study of such botanical problems, and prepare a report on the same. Part oi his duties was to advise the Colonial Office, so that the mission fitted in with duty, and he hoped to be in a position, when he reached home, to issue a report that would bo of the greater importance because of his having seen local conditions. The tour was made possible by the Empire Marketing Board making a grant for the purpose, it having in view possibilities as to the expansion of overseas industries and trade. He did not schedule or classify the problems before starting, but just dealt with each as it presented itself in the course of his travels.

All who have an opportunity of meeting Dr Hill will find in him a courteous gentleman, old enough to be a master in his profession, young enough to he thoroughly alert.