DR A. W. HILL’S VISIT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20283, 16 December 1927, Page 14

DR A. W. HILL’S VISIT.

APPLIED SCIENCE AND RESEARCH. NEW ZEALAND’S LINKS WITH KEW GARDENS. SIR JOSEPH HOOKER'S EARLY WORK. (Feom Oue Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 5. In furtherance of research work, the Em pire Marketing Board decided some time ago to sot apart a certain sum of money annually so that the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, or some senior member of the staff might visit different parts of the Empire to study botanicaJ and economic products. In pursuance of this scheme. Dr A. W. Hill, the d'rector, set sail for Australia and New Zealand two days ago. The invitation first came from the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the object of the visit was that Dr Hill should investigate and report upon the botanical, agricultural, and forestry institutions of Australia. Dr Hill will arrive at Fremantle on November 29, and will spend some time in West Australia, and then go on to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, studying the various botanical institutions in the different States. He hopes also to attend the meeting of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science at Hobart in January. Hearing that Dr Hill was going to Australia, the' New Zealand Council for Scientific and Industrial Research extended an invitation which was accepted. Dr Hill hopes to spend at least three weeks in the Dominion. Doubtless, he will be asked to visit all the agricultural and botanical institutions, and his advice will be sought in regard to the scientific studies pursued >n these institutions, the object being to so regulate the study of pure sciences that students may easily turn their attention to applied sciences and research. No doubt, tho forestry authorities will also claim Ur Hill’s attention in the limited time at his disposal. After leaving New Zealand, Dr Hill will visit Singapore and Ceylon Not only will this tour bo of direct benefit to tho countries visited but it wul b© of inestimable value to tho director of Kew, and it will be in furtherance ot the policy of co-ordinating the research work of the Empire. Dr Hill has travelled in South America; he has been on a mission to British West Africa and Nigeria, and he has made a number of visits to the West Indies, for be is one of the founders and a governor of Trinidad College But he has never been to the Last or to the southern dominions before, indeed, this will be the .first visit paid to New Zealand by an official of Kew Gardens since Sir Joseph Hooker was there in 1840. SIR JOSEPH HOOKER IN NEW ZEALAND. It is interesting *o recall this visit, for .Sir Joseph Hooker undertook a great work on behalf of New Zealand He was surgeon and naturalist on board the Erebus when that ship and the Terror made their historical antarctic trip. On the return journey the Erebus and Terror put into the Bay of Islands and remained there from August 14, 1840, to November 23. During those months Sir Joseph Hooker developed a useful friendship with the Rev. William Colenso and Dr Sinclair. Dr David Lyall, of the Terror, was another member of this scientific narty. Hooker made a collection of New Zealand plants, but he also started his newlv-formcd friends on a campaign ol investigation. In the library at Kew one may see to-day the long, carefully-written letters that were sent by Mr Colenso to the first director of Kew. Sn W. J. Hooker, the father of Sir Joseph. From the information and specimens he obtained while at tho Bay of Islands and from subsequent information and specimens sent by Mr Colenso, Sir Joseph Hooker compiled his great work, Flora Nova-Zealandia.” It was Published in 1853, and 11 years later—in 1804—Sir Joseph published the “ Handbook of New Ze New d Zea\and had an earlier connection still with Kew Gardens. A certain Mr Allan Cunningham, a collector of _Kew, waß attached to the New South Wales Government, and in 1826 he paid a visit to New Zealand, obtaining specimens which may' be seen to-day in the Kew Herbarium, an old royal building where are stored 3,000,000 plants collected from all countres, named, classified, subdivided into geographical divisions, and filed for ready reference. A CAPTAIN COOK COLLECTION. Turning over some of the files containing snecimens of New Zealand plants we came to some collected by Forster, one of the scientists who accompanied Captain Cook on his voyages. Although it is ntiirlv 150 years since these plants were gathered on the shores of New Zqgland. they are in an excellent state of preservation but the ink of Forster’s descript one is somewhat faded. This early, collection was probably .in the possesison of some public institution, and came to the Herbarium at a later date. It may be mentioned that the specimen plants nve treated with a corrosive sublimate to °preserve them from the depredations ° f New e Zealand has had its own eminent botanists and the Dominion . has not relied upon this central clearing house as other dominions and colonies or compulng the flora of the country Nevertheless, the correspondence which passes between the Kew office and Government departments, other institutions, and private individuals of the Dominion is quite voluminous. It is the woik or one member of the staff to attend to the inquiries from Australia and New Zealand Other parts of the Empire find it advisable to send one of their own civil servants to Kew to do the work relating to their respective countries. This development of the scientific side of Kew began under the direction of Su William Hooker, who was appointed dacotor in 1841, the year after the gardens had been given to the nation by Queen Victoria. In the hall of the herbarium may be seen the small cupboard, divided into pigeonholes, which Hooker first used for the storing of plants when he started the work of transforming Kew from semiprivate gardens in the possession and control of the Royal Family into the Empire s centre of botanical science. PLANT THAT CURES LEPROSY. Kew ns a national institution, was first placed’under tho control of tho. Commissioners of Woods and forests, binco 1903 its control has been v9sted.nl the Minify of Agriculture and I-ishenes. . One ot the chief' duties of Kew is the introduction of new and useful plants to our dcpemlcncies, and enormous numbers of plants producing foods, medicines, oils, fibres and rubber have been sent to all parts of the Empire. Of the many matters at present under investigation in the herbarium two may be mentioned in illustration of the varied work of the institution. One is an investigation into the trees whose seeds yield Chaulmugra oil. which is now- being used as a cure for leprosy by injection. The specimens came from India, Burma, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula. The other matter is tho identification ot a plant sent by a medical man in Siam, called locally “ Lcthangue, . somewhat like the British stinkhorn, which tho doctor said was used by the Siamese as a soporific when reduced to powder, but was mostly employed by criminals, presumably to stupefy their victims. -