WINTER GARDEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 146, 23 May 1939, Page 6

WINTER GARDEN

PROPOSAL FOR CITY. POPULAKITY QUESTIONED. Contentions that the suggestion for the establishment of a winter garden at the Esplanade as the City’s Centennial memorial did not embody a form of memorial which would have a sufficiently wide appeal, that the establishment of such a project would be too costly, and that tho maintenance costs would be too great, were advanced by Mr J. Nairn, of College Street, Awapuni, in the course of an interview with an “Evening Standard” reporter. Mr Nairn pointed out that the use of the motor-car for pleasure had severely affected horticulture, and the position in regard to the establishment of attractions or features of a horticultural nature had to be looked at in the light of present-day experience with an eye to the distant future as well. In Christchurch, he said, there existed the largest winter garden in the Dominion and lie had a long association with the city and an intimate one with those who controlled the garden. Air Nairn referred to the Palmerston North project with a certain amount of diffidence, as lie was not actually a ratepayer of the city; liis residence lies within the Ivairanga County. However, lie took a very keen interest in the matter because he had been associated with nursery work all his life and the nurseries establshed by his late father in Christchurch were now the oldest in the Dominion.

“In tile first place a winter garden as it is. generally known now, is quite a misnomer,” said Air Nairn. “AVliat is called a winter garden is not really a garden at all but a conservatory, not without features of architecture. These conservatories are filled with plants which have previously reached almost the complete stage of their growth in pots, ill what are called auxiliary or subsidiary houses. The plants in these houses, of course, are in different stages of development. The plants which are in show condition are placed in the main building, the younger plants being held in the auxiliary houses, without which help the main houses could not carry on. ■UPKEEP COSTLY. “In Christchurch, where there have been two such houses presented to the city, these alone costing well over £II,OOO, the experience lias been that they are but a luxury, and the expenditure required for their maintenance lias been such as to cause considerable thought. One of the two houses was left under tho will of the late Mr M. Cunningham, a widely known horticulturist, who provided a sum of no less than £IO,OOO. "With the knowledge that this money would become available when legal formalities were concluded, the Christchurch Domain Board was enabled to continue with the establishment of the subsidiary houses to supply the larger one. The curator was sent to Australia and had a buying commission for several hundred pounds’ worth of plants of the tropical and sub-tropical types. “The result was that when the main house, called the Cunningham House, after the donor, was opened, it was shown for the first time as a ‘going concern.’ Tho second house came to the city in another manner. The late Mr Allan McLean, of Redcastle station, near Oamaru, built the second house for his own use on private property, and on his passing the property was left for a charitable purpose. The trustees of the institution found the conservatory of no use to their particular purposes and offered the building to the Domain Board for £SOO. The hoard found this sum too great to meet and it was left to the generosity of Airs Townend, who came forward with an offer, which was carried out, to buy the building and have it shifted from its then site to the present one on the same block as the other, with a consequent increase in the cost, reaching a total of at least £IOOO. “Christchurch was thus very much favoured with the free provision of the two houses, which in the case of the larger, have given the city the leadership of New Zealand for this class of horticulture,” Mr Nairn added. “INotwitlistanding this exceedingly favourourable beginning, the Christchurch Domain Board has found the drain on its funds very considerable through the heavy maintenance costs involved. Alodifications could have been made in tho architectural design of the larger building, it is true, to make the heating system more efficient, but this is only a section of the expense, for the attention required by the plants and their raising requires the keeping of an adequate staff. “Tho Domain Board, it might be explained, is quite a separate body from the City Council, and had certain lands vested in it when the oity was originally laid out. From this land, part of which is let for grazing and part used as sports areas, the board draws revenue, but this is limited. The drain caused by the cost of maintenance of the winter garden lias been such as to cause much thought to the members of the board. In Palmerston North the ratepayers would be called on to carry the cost of the maintenance of tho garden should one be established here,” Air Nairn concluded.