ESTABLISHED VITICULTURE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17918, 24 October 1932, Page 11

ESTABLISHED VITICULTURE

JAMES BUSBY’S GIFT TO AUSTRALIA A GREAT SERVICE >' ‘ l \ » ' v .' f. ' i* \ 1 -v . A very interesting letter to the Time: London, by Mr. Hal Williams gives details of one of the many services tt Australia and New Zealand performer by James Busby : “Sir, —In the article ou Australia: wine which you published in your issut of August IB some doubt is expressed a: to the number of varieties of vines thai were, sent to Australia by my grandfather, James Busby, in i 832. I liavt before mo a copy of the journal wind he kept of his tour through France ant Spain. “My grandfather had always been in tcrested in wine and had been greatlj struck with the potentialities of the Australian soil and climate in this respect. Before 1831 he had distributee upwards of 20,000 vine cuttings amonf some 50 individuals, and on visiting England in 1831 he brought with bin 10 gallons of a burgundy-type wine oi tho 1829-30 vintage made by Mr. Sadleii at the Orphan. School, Sydney. TJlis was distributed among persons interested in the Colony of New South Wale: and was well thought of. James Busb) was particularly interested in raisin: and determined to visit Malaga and ob tain cuttings of the raisin-grape. Hi: tour lasted from September 6 to the enc of December, 1831, and took him througi Xeres, Malaga, Catalonia, Perpignan Rousillon, Itivesaltes, Montpelier, Taras coil, Mars'cilles, Hermitage,. Beaune, and the Cote d’Or, and Rlieims, He collected from the Royal Botanic Gardens at. Montpelier and the Royal nursery of the Luxembourg 547 varieties of the vines cultivated in France and some other parts of Europe. Of these with two or three exceptions, he obtain ed two cuttings. Independently of these lie secured “a competent quantity of all the most valuable varieties which I iounc cultivated iu the best wine districts o: France and Spain both for wine and raisins.” These numbered some 500-6 CK cuttings of 100 varieties. “The cuttings were packed in sane and earth in cases lined with doubleoiled paper, a suggestion of M. Urbar Andibert, of Tarascpn. With the conseiil aijd. cd;operatiou of Lord Goderich, Hi: Majesty’s- Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, they were sent out ii: a convict ship, and, arriving at Sydney in excellent condition, were planted anc nurtured by Mr. McLean, of the Botanh Garden. Some of the cuttings from the South of Spain, which did not arrive till later, were planted in. open boxes bj Mr. Richard Cunningham, of Kew, afterward's the Colonial Botanist of Now South Wales. These wore sent to Syduev in the convict ship Camdpn, and not 10 out of the 500-600 cuttings failed. James Busby remarks with some pride that he had ‘the satisfaction of having transferred to the Colony, without any expense to the public, and almost in a complete state, a national collection ol vines, which it was for three-quarters o‘ a century the favorite project of writers on agriculture and agricultural societies in France to collect, and which was at length accomplished at a very considerable expense to the country by the Count do Chantal, when Minister of the Interim under, Buonaparte.’ “There is little doubt that these vines are the stock from which the present Australian vines have sprung. James Busby was afterwards appointed the first British Resident in New, Zealand, and. with my paternal grandfather. Archdeacon Henry Williams, was mainly instrumental in getting the Treaty of Waitangi signed by the Maori chiefs. It will be remembered that James Busby’s residence, Waitangi, in the Bay, of Islands, where the treaty wap signed, was recently purchased, by the Governor-Gen-eral, Lord Biedisloe, and presented to the New Zealand people as a national park.” .* ~