INSTITUTE OF HORTICULTURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20827, 20 September 1929, Page 14

INSTITUTE OF HORTICULTURE

OTAGO DISTRICT COUNCIL. A meeting of the Otago District Council of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture was held in the office of the local branch of the Department of Agriculture yesterday afternoon. There were present: Messrs D. Tannoek (in the chair), H. Hart, H. Christie, and W. K. Dallas (lion, secretary). Thu chairman welcomed Mr W. T. Goodwin, assistant director of the Horticulture Division, to the meeting. It was decided to write to Sir Gcoige Fenwick expressing the council’s sympathy with him in his illness and the hope that he would be able to attend their meetings again at no distant date. The secretary said that he had communicated . with the local horticußural and beautifying societies asking them to join. up with the institute. He had also written to the fruitgrowing associations. So far no replies had been received. The chairman said that the various outside bodies received assistance from the institute, and he thought they should become affiliated. The institute had met with the hearty endorsement of the Government, it was growing rapidly, and was an organisation worthy of support. The primary object of the Otago branch was the beautification of the province and the care and protection of the native plants and shrubs within its boundaries. . -A. R. Stone, . Dominion secretary, wrote stating that at the last meeting of the executive council it had been decided to request district councils to make it known that certain tights in Connection with applications for the institute's diploma in horticulture, without examination,, would not be granted after October 21. Concessions to candidates in the groups headed “ Examination under B and C ” applied only to those examined before De'eerabur 31, 1029. Mr Stone stated that Henry James Burt, Dunedin, had been granted a diploma without examination, and that ■ Miss Margaret Watt, Dunedin, had gained a senior certificate (intermediate examination). Miss Watt and Miss Elizabeth Kibblewhite, Auckland (who had been granted a diploma without examination), were the first of their sex to gain the institute's certificate and, diploma respectively. The chairman said that they had three scenic reserves in Dunedin—at Signal Hill, Flagstaff, and Mount Cargill, These were not improving in any way, because no one was looking after them, and boys had gone to the reserves and had lit fires, and it seemed to be no one’s business to put them out. The destruction of the bush affected the water catchment areas of the city, He understood that the City 'Council proposed to endeavour to havi the areas vested in it. and he thought they might help the council in its object. The reserves would then be brought under the direct control of tho council. The other day seven hoys had been caught lighting fires at Flagstaff on the margin of the plantation. It Was decided to write to the executive council and ask it to support the application of the City Council. A eross-the-tahlc. conversation fol lowed with Mr Goodwin, who gave information of what was being done by the . horticultural societies in other places. The chairman said they hoped to start a native plant branch here in time.