DR HILL IN DUNEDIN

Evening Star, Issue 19772, 24 January 1928, Page 4

DR HILL IN DUNEDIN

GLASSES OUR RESERVES AS UNIQUE NATIVE FLORA IN GARDENS INCOMPARABLE Dr Arthur William Hill, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, was fully engaged in Dunedin all day yesterday. After lunching at the Grand Hotel he was escorted by Mr Tannock (superintendent of reserves) and Or Larnach (chairman of the Reserves Committee) to our Botanic Gardens, where most of the afternoon was spent, after which the doctor was driven ■round the city. BEAUTIFUL DUNEDIN. After the drive Dr Hill unsparingly praised our city, saying he did not think there was a much more beauti-fully-situated town than Dunedin, with its wealth of greenery, and it was splendidly laid out. The reserves in the heart of the city were quite unique. The pioneers had shown a wonderful foresight in laying out the city, with its reserves and fine areas of native bush. He was very favorably impressed with the general tidiness and cleanliness of the city and its surroundings, showing that the citizens respected their property. Nobody knew that he was to make a visit that morning, so that there could be no special tidying-up. He thought it a. pity, however, that the telegraph polos were allowed to remain in the gardens. They did not seem to be used, and they were unsightly. The flat portion of the Botanic Gardens, the ornamental part, had a very interesting collection of plants, the roses particularly showing _ out well. Then there was the very interesting rock garden along by the stream. He had been much impressed with its size. On the second portion of the gardens, the hillside, there was a wonderful collection of native trees and shrubs. The collection was in some ways far more interesting than that seen in any gardens he had visited in the Southern Hemisphere. The native trees and shrubs were of great value. The real object of botanical gardens was to educate the public, and really develop these gardens on national lines. Ho did not think there was any collection of native trees in New Zealand to compare with those in the Dunedin Gardens. It was quite a _ good thing to have exotic plants to interest the people of a city, out visitors from overseas and students were mostly attracted by a representative collection of the native flora, such as that found hero. , One of the most beautiful features of the gardens was the rhododendron dell, and he had been greatly impressed with the number of native fuchsias there. The old remnants and modern plantings of native trees, and shrubs in the Dunedin Gardens,, in fact, matte them one of the most interesting he had seen in the overseas possessions. In many of the gardens m the West Indies and Australis most of the plants grown were from other countries. He was surprised to see what Mr Tannock had accomplished with toe small staff at his disposal, and he considered he should have a larger number of men, because he was developing guldens which were of very great importance to the dominion.. There were great possibilities in getting together the native flora of New Zealand, and a, representative collection of Australian flora might also be secured for purposes of comparison. WELCOME AT THE SAVOY.

In the evening about fifty citizens, representing all classes, met m the Somerset Lounge of the Savoy to meet The' mayor (Mr W. B. Taverner) presided , and welcom6d tbo Kew director. , , . . . Sir Gsoro’c Fenwick, who has visited Kow Gardens twice, said he felt sure that no one who had not been there also could realise what, was being done there, and had been done for the Empire and the world at large. Those who had not yet been to Kew had a great pleasure in store for them. _ Mr T. K. Sidey, representing the local branch of the New Zealand Institute'of Horticulture, also joined in the welcome. Mr D. Tan nock said ho was very Mad of the opportunity to welcome Dr Hill on behalf of the practical gardeners and horticulturists. _ Dr Hill was not. a, gardener or horticulturist, but a botanist, with a keen interest in gardens. His aesthetic taste was a, surer guide to him than any technique or mechanical knowledge of special plants. Dr Hill expressed his appreciation of the welcome extended, and then began a. most interesting address. Firstly he. dealt, with the history of the Kew Gardens. They began with the royal patronage of the Princess Augusta, who, on the death of her husband, Frederick, the Prince of Wales, in 1660, turned her attention to horticulture as a hobby. Many of the trees and plants grown nearly 300 years ago were cultivated to this day. At her death George HI. inherited Kew, and with it some adjoining gardens, also belonging to the Royal family, and when the road which separated the two was diverted the Royal Gardens at Kew came into existence. These gardens were royal in the truest sense of the term. They had not, as many people supposed, been endowed with the name for mere sentimental reasons. The expansion and development, of the Kew Gardens began with the ownership of George 111., who selected Sir Joseph Banks ns director. Sir Joseph was a great botanist, and took a. keen interest in things botanical all over the world. It was he who induced the King to send Kew men to the four corners of the earth to collect specimens of flora, for planting. Some of those plants, notably those brought from Cape Colony in 1780, were still to be seen in London. Thus were the Kew Gardens established ns a recognised world centre of botanical enterprise. The sending out of men to various parts of the Empire had fallen into abeyance of late, and Kew had no power, funds, or facilities to do this work —an unfortunate position. His hearers, therefore, could judge his pleasure at learning that the board had decided to provide £4,000 a year for five years for the purpose suggested. This allowed for the appointment of an assistant director, thus leaving one official free to travel round studying and investigating economic and general botanical problems as they arose. An assistant was soon found, and the first country visited under the new scheme was Bntish Guiana, which visit was concluded only one month before the. speaker left on his present tour. Another man had been sent to the Malay States to study banana disease, and yet another curator had been sent to Java, Ceylon, and Singapore to study tropical vegetations under natural conditions. Many colonies owed their present prosperity to Kew’s operations, he proceeded. One of the latest accomplishments was.the introduction of chaulmoogra oil into colonies and islands subject to the ravages of leprosy. It was hoped that this work would prove as successful as that which had resulted in 1860 in the distribution of quinine. His official work at Homo lay so much with Empire and world problems and conditions that the pastime of gardening and practical horticulture did not figure very largely in his life. Mr Sidey asked whether anything I bad been done to introduce New Zealand flax into other parts of the world. Dr Hill said a considerable amount of. w,ork had been done. The New Zealand 'authorities had done everything

in the way of forwarding specimens, and the plant flourished in many places notably the West of Scotland. However, there was not sufficient interest shown on the, part of millers and growers. The handling of the raw material was a. different process with the New Zealand article, and most mijlevs were not. prepared to adjust their plants and methods to suit. Dr Hill said that very little had been done yet, and he did not know whether the New Zealand flax would gain any great popularity in other countries. A hearty vote of thanks was acto the speaker, and supper followed. HIS MOVEMENTS TO-DAY This morning Dr Hill was taken by Air Tannock to see three private collections of native plants—. Sir George Fenwick’s at Mornington, Dr Hunter’s, and the Thomson Brothers’ at Wakari —and expressed himself as highly interested in what he observed at each of these gardens. Speaking about the visits just before he left by train, Dr Hill said that he was very keenly appreciative of the work that is being done by Mr George Thomson in studying the natural hybrids which appear to occur in the New Zealand flora, particularly amongst the veronicas, the olearias, and the celmisias.

Dr Hill added that he was taking a great interest in the native plants of this dominion. The subject was fascinating, and he hoped for important botanic results from the culture and the observation of Mr Tahnock and others who had taken it up. Ab a final word to Dunedin, the doctor said: “You have a delightful place here, and in Mr Tannock a very competent man. Do all you can tn encourage him, and to even further stimulate the love of beauty that is evidently inherent in the citizens generally. Lastly, for Heaven’s sake root out those disfiguring telegraph posts in the Botanic Gardens.” Dr Hill is not staying at Christchurch to-night, hut is arranging to be in Wellington to-morrow. He says that there has been some misunderstanding about the term of his tour. He must be back at Kew Ijjj April 2D.