LODER CUP PRESENTED TO MR. B. TEAGUE

Forest and Bird, Issue 149, 1 August 1963, Page 4

LODER CUP PRESENTED TO MR. B. TEAGUE

Mr. B. Teague is well known to all members through the columns of Forest and Bird and is personally known to many. All congratulate him on being awarded the muchprized Loder Cup. The following account of the function at which the presentation was made to Mr. Teague is taken from the IVairoa Star of 22 April last.

An ovation from the large crowd present on Friday evening in the supper room of the War Memorial Hall greeted Mr. Bernard Teague when he was presented with the Loder Cup by the Director of Horticulture, Mr. A. M. W. Greig, of Wellington.

The Loder Cup, a handsome and valuable silver trophy, is the premier award in New Zealand in the realm of horticulture, and its presentation is an honour not only to Mr. Teague, but to the community, said Mr. Greig. It is awarded annually to the person or organisation who, for many years in a voluntary capacity, has stimulated interest in New

Zealand flora, and has worked for its preservation.

The Loder Cup was donated by an Englishman, Mr. Gerald Loder, who visited New Zealand in 1886, the year of the Tarawera eruption, and later in life became Lord Wakehurst. As president of the Royal Horticultural Society, he decided to do something practical to encourage the protection and preservation of what he called “the incomparable flora of New Zealand”. He donated the cup and entrusted it to the New Zealand Minister of Agriculture for annual award.

The Minister is assisted by a widely representative committee, including members from the University Grants Committee, the Royal Society, the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, the H.T.A. (plant nurserymen), the Institute of Park Administration, and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.

Since the first award in 1929, the cup has been presented 33 times. This is the first time that the honour has fallen to a resident of Northern Hawke’s Bay. The Loder Cup is awarded for long years of service to horticulture, and has rarely been won by anyone under the age of 60 years. _ Mr. Nelson congratulated Mr. Teague on the award, and read the citation presented by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. Bernard Teague, he said, was born at Feilding in 1903, and has been interested in nature protection from his early youth. As a deerstalker, hunter, climber, and tramper, he penetrated deeply into the remoter parts of the South Island. On settling in Wairoa 26 years ago, he started his exploration of the Urewera forest, then known to few people other than a small number of Maoris, but now familiar to many through Mr. Teague’s writings and illuminated lectures.

His own explorations were extended by those of research and tramping groups, whose interest in the area was stimulated by his findings ; and more recently, since the area was declared a National Park, he has organised and led annual camps of nature lovers to study the unique flora and fauna there.

After the Government aerial survey showed three previously unknown groups of lagoons, Mr. Teague formed a party which was successful in locating two of these, andtwo years later — found the third. These were

named, on his suggestion, as Lakes Ruapanu, Tuhoe, and the Arawa Tarns.

An energetic advocate for the creation of the Urewera National Park, Mr. Teague has since pressed for the preservation .of forest in the catchment of Ruakituri, a tributary of the Wairoa River. Thirty-seven thousand acres of this forest have recently become part of the National Park.

In addition to being a member of the Urewera National Park Board, Mr. Teague is chairman of the Wairoa section and a member of the national council of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, Fellow of the Royal New Zealand Horticultural Society, and a member of the New Zealand Alpine Club.

“There is an increasing appreciation of the value and importance of our native bush,” Mr. Nelson said “Few people have done more than Mr. Teague to generate and foster this interest and to encourage others to share his own delight. His awareness of the losses occurring from indiscriminate interference with natural forest and his efforts to instill people with the idea of preserving such areas as a national asset have made a notable contribution to the New Zealand scene.”

In reply Mr. Teague, who had been nominated for recognition by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, stressed the unceasing work of the society and the part it had played in the preservation of the beauties of nature.

The Mayor, Mr. R. E. Shortt, expressed the pride and pleasure of the people of Wairoa that such an important national award had been won by a citizen of the town.