OTARI NATIVE PLANT MUSEUM

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 69, 23 March 1933, Page 10

OTARI NATIVE PLANT MUSEUM

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The Wadestown Cottage Garden Society's competition for . the collection of native leaves and flowers displayed at their show on March 9 has aroused interest, and brought this reserve before the public. The position was that this competition was open to' the children of the district. One child went to ll& Gresley Lukin Alpine Garden and made a small collection from the alpine plants there, a number of which are very rare, m many cases the only species in cultivation and still unnamed. They are recorded and numbered until they they have been under observation for: some time. The young collector, with the best'intentions in the world, called on the custodian of the reserve to have them named. The plants were at once recognised as coming from-the alpine garden, as they were to bo found nowhere else in the district. My advice was sought as to. whether it was fair to let them be entered for a competition unless other, children were also given the right to collect in the alpine1 garden. I instructed the custodian to retain the leaves and flowers in question and to explain to the'child that no collecting was allowed in the alpine.garden. The same day I wrote to the secretary of the Wadestown Society and requested them to mention in the schedule in future that the Otari Reserve was out 'of bounds as far as collecting for this competition was concerned.

'It is quite obvious. that these alpine gems .collected at considerable trouble and risk from the mountains of this country want the greatest attention and skill if they are to thrive and develop in this locality, and no interference with them must take place. The work here, I may say, is attracting attention from botanists and horticulturalists from far and near. The reserve is 143 acres in extent, and what has 'been done so far is only a preliminary to the great work in hand. The plan in its entirety is the first to be formulated in any part of the world. It is full o£ possibilities for the good of the people. It is not for Wellington i only but for the Dominion as a whole. Indeed, as the flora and vegetation of New Zealand are considered/of special interest the world over, the influence of the Otari Open-Ait Plant Museum will be world wide. —I am, etc.,

J. G. MACKENZIE, Director of Parks and .Reserves.