THE PARK.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 12 June 1924, Page 9

THE PARK.

CURATOR'S VISIT TO DUNEDIN

•Mr D. N. Harper, curatoi of l Tunaru Park, recently made a ' > ‘ to Dunedin, tor the purpose of m.. u mg information alto lll lhe „ ‘ used m the construction of the ter gardens in the southern city. “in budding a glass house io begonias,” said Mr Harpei, “Herald” representative yestcidaj, “one needs all the lnlormattoi can get with reference to the latest constructional methods. The c U., aim of the new glass house lieie be to provide a more fitting scttin for the .begonias, and at the same» time . to form part, of some comprche site scheme in the future. I lie new buildin" will not be confined to begoniaalone, however, for I hope to have a glass-house in winch can be giojvn sub-tropical plants, which will make a brilliant showing all the year, round. Mr Harper said lie had inspected the winter gardens m Dunechn bj the courtesy of the superintendent, Mi Turner, who liad given him every facility for studying the building materials. He had obtained sufficient information to enable him to decide on the materials which he would use ioi a building in Timaru, though, ot course, this depended on the amount of money which would be available, in the event of the Council’s deciding] to erect, a new glass house in the Park, Mr Turner had offered to supply -Mr Harper with a number of suitable foliage plants, to assist in “furnishing’.’ the new building. With Mr Turner, continued Mi Harper, lie had visited the playgrounds, reserves, and nurseries m Dunedin. The City Council had ihimy hundreds of acres of reserves which had been planted with forest trees, principally -Oregon pine, and . .Englisn larch, and the trees were doing extremely. well. The first trees were planted 17 years ago, and- were now being thinned out, the thinnings being used for all sorts of purposes, borne were even big enough to be utilised as scaffqlding pples, Mr ; Turner expected that in a few years the larches would be fit for use as electric light and telephone poles, taking the place of the Australian hardwoods, now nnP °The lawns on the public playgrounds were being cut with motor moweis, which had proved in many ways more advantageous than the horse-drawn machines, one great advantage being that the motor mowers could be used even when the ground was very soft. Mr Harper said that lie had visited the splendid -.collection; of ' veronicas gathered by Messrs H. H, a rt, and HEl Dart on, at We therstonegj. These gen. tlemen had. presented Mr Harper with 32 varieties of the rarer veromefte, on condition that .%.„ Council . should keep them intact -as a collection. -Ineu wish was that every local body which had gardens should endeavour to grow and perpetuate this class of plant. Mr Harper,.-entirely concurred, .with. this view, and. said he-hoped that the Timaru Gardens would have as complete a. collection of native flora as possible-.