HELPING THE EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 9

HELPING THE EMPIRE.

VISITORS TO AUSTRALIA.

COMING TO NEW ZEALAND. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY. Bee. 23. Two distinguished Britons whose work has been of extreme value to the Empire at large, and is likely to continue to develop the Dominions, arrived in Melbourne this week on tours of which the object is to study the resources of the Dominions and to form opinions as to how they could best be used and improved to develop and assist the whole Empire. They were Dr. A. W. Hill, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London), and Dr. Leslie Haden Guest, a former Labour member of the House of Commons, who-left that party because of its attitude in regard to the protection of British subjects in China, but who had previously demonstrated his great interest in the work of making the British Empire greater. Dr. Hill is visiting Australia at the invitation of the Commonwealth Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and he will proceed to New Zealand at the conclusion of his studies in this country. Dr. Hill really comes to Australia as a member of the Empire Marketing Board, whose grant tc i the lvew Gardens enabled Dr. Hill to raako his leng voyage. By doing so ho is only continuing the work of the gardens when they were part of the Domain of George 111. Under the first director, Sir Joseph Banks, and his successors, trained botanical observers were sent to new British communities to see how far the resources of Kew could assist in developing and supplementing natural botanical material for tho establishment of industry, the supply of foodstuffs, tho maintenance of public health, and so forth. L.he grant of the Empire Marketing Board has enabled the Kew Gardens to resume the sending of collectors abroad to secure valuablo plants and seeds for distribution throughout the Dominions —a work that had to cease when the gardens were nationalised in 1841, and tack of funds caused this branch of its activities to be abandoned. "The value of personal observation in various countries by trained botanists can hardly bo over-estimated," Dr. Hill told a Melbourne interviewer, in explanation of the objects of his tour. "A new fibre plant may be found, or areas located where tea, cocoa, sugar and other important products can be successfully grown on a commercial scale. In such cases, the resources of Kew Gardens are made available to establish the necessary plantations. In the field of medicine, also, the gardens have rendered great was through tho activities of the Kew Gardens that the cliinchona plant, from which quinine is derived, was established in India td combat malaria. We are now sending to the Dominions where leprosy is prevalent the chaulmoogra plant, a native of Burma, from the seeds of which ;m oil is extracted which, after certain chemical treatment, is regarded as a very effective specific for the dread disease." Dr. Haden Guest is on a more or less private mission. His interests include a weekly publication in London devoted to the furtherance of the Empire, but he is mainly interested in the marketing problems associated with Dominion products. To study the growing and preparation for marketing of these products is Dr. Haden Guest's principal aim, especially in ihe fruit industry. His plans cail for, a stay of several months in Australia, and he will then probably go to New Zealand.