LODER CUP

Evening Star, Issue 23147, 22 December 1938, Page 6

LODER CUP

FOR NATIVE FLORA AWARD TO MRS KNOX GILMER The Loder Cup for the year 1938 has been awarded to Mrs Knox Gilmer, of Wellington; . The Loder Cup was presented, as a challenge cup, in the year 1926, by the late Gerald W. Loder (afterwards Lord Wakehurst), of Sussex, England, to the lovers of Nature in New Zealand. The cup was to be competed for annually in accordance with such conditions as might be approved by the Minister of Agriculture, in whose custody the cup was placed. It was formerly awarded to the winner of an open competition for New Zealand plants, staged at specified flower shows, arranged under the auspices of the horticultural societies in the four centres in turn.

The cup was then awarded for the best collection of New Zealand plants grown by the exhibitor under bona fide garden conditions. The display could consist of either living specimens growing in pots or tubs, or portions of plants taken from living specimens grown by the exhibitor. Competition in the foregoing form was continued over a number of years, but a new Loder Cup Committee, appointed by the Minister of Agriculture, then decided that the intention of the donor of the cup, “ to encourage the protection and cultivation of the incomparable flora of the Dominion,” could be better met by an alteration in the conditions, and the cup is now awarded annually to the person or body of persons who in the opinion of the committee have excelled in the year of the award “ in furthering the aims and objects of the donor of the cup.” In arriving at its award the .committee works along the lines of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mrs Knox Gilmer, this year’s winner, was nominated by the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, the Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, and the Wellington Horticultural Society.