WHANGAREI NURSERYMEN

Northern Advocate, 13 July 1925, Page 6

WHANGAREI NURSERYMEN

MEETING OF COUNCIL. ADDRESS BY DOMINION ORGANISER.

A special meeting of the Whangarei Council of the New Zealand Association of Nurserymen was held on Friday e\ emng. There was a large attendance and Mr C. Y. Stringer occupied the chair. In Iris opening remarks the president expressed pleasure at the presence of Mr George A. Green the Dominion secretary, and also Mr A. C. Pve, to whom he extended a warm welcome on his taking his seat for the first time as a member of the Council. The president spoke of the future of the nursery trade in the north. Though the district was an old one as New Zealand settlement counted, it was as yet in its infancy, and there must be great developments in the near future. This would mean the planting of an increased number of trees and plants. The nurserymen of the past deserved the best thanks of the rising generation for their foresight and the assistance that they had given to liorticuture, and he felt sure that those of today were not a whit behind their fathers in their desire to afford real service, and to place their experience at the disposal of the public. While the nurserymen were out for a living, they realised that the true spirit of the age was covered in one word "service," and in their work they endeavoured to give it.

Several matters of purely local interest were dealt with and then MiGreen was asked to address the meeting. This he did, giving a resume of the work of the Association in different parts of the coontry. He said that the demand for high class shrubs was stil' steady and likely to increase, while the planting of flowering annuals and perennials was on the increase. It was pleasing to note the number who were realising as never before the value of quality; many more than in the past realised that quality counted more in the future than the difference of a few pence in money. This was being carried into the matter of fruit trees. He instanced the case of the president of the Citrus Growers' Association, who at the last annual meeting ha-1 stressed the importance of getting their trees of the varieties desired, of the sizes best suited to the plantations, commercial tree?, and of the need for all the trees to be guaranteed from the best parent stock available. Quality meant money, but it meant ultimr t<- net returns also. The same thing went in regard to the selection of trees for forest and plantation purposes. Quality in the trees planted would always count; there were too many failures from the planting of weak, drawn s'tuff, quoted cheap. "Cheap and nasty" was a term that applied to some nursery stock as. well as to other things. The Association stood

for "service in quality" before all things, and its members as a whole pr.ided themselves on this fact. There was a great need for the development of afforestation and in this the Association had always taken a leading part. Mr Green spoke of the prospects of the Horticultural Week in Dunedin in January next, in connection with the International Exhibition. This, he said, would be-a great attraction, and it was expected that nurserymen would assist the fruit growers in staging a good exhibit of citrus fruit and citrus l.rec-s, 'which would be a great advertisement for the North. "We need," said Mr Green, "more horticultural education in New Zealand. Our young nurserymen need somewhere where they can get a sound theoretical and practical training." It wa>' confidently expected that good results would come from the efforts of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture along these lines. At the conclusion of his address the sentiments of Mr Green were warmly nppl.fl.uded, and votes of thanks to Mr Green and to the chairman brought a most successful meeting to a close.