HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 651, 29 October 1851, Page 3

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

A.n adjourned general meeting of the members of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanic Society was held on Monday evening last, at Barrett’s Hotel, to receive the report of the committee appointed at the previous meeting to revise the rules of the Society. The President, H. St. Hill, Esq., in the chair. The chairman, in opening the business of the meeting, read the following report: — The Committee appointed at the general meeting of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanic Society, held at Barrett’s Hotel on Monday evening the 13th inst,, to examine and revise the rules of the Society, beg to lay before the members, for their consideration, the accompanying rules which have been framed, after due deliberation, with the object of meeting the present requirements of the Society. They regret that the means afforded them of references to the rules and regulations of associations of similar character have been extremely limited, so that the basis upon which it is now proposed to establish the rules of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanic Society has been that which has suggested itself to the Committee as the best calculated to aid and assist an infant institution like their own. Jnom if tlin mnrn nrnilonr-nnrl j 1..V.V uuu uvuototent with existing circumstances at this moment that the Society should be untrammelled by rules for the election of members, or for their expulsion ; but that merely the simple forms necessary for its working and maintenance should be kept in view. While the Committee have, however, refrained from encumbering the rules with matter which they conceive more properly within the province of the Committee of Management, they would i venture io offer a few observations which they hope may not be considered out of place. They conceive that the Society should avail itself of the earliest opportunity of communicating with kindred associations in Van Diemen’s Land, and in the neighbouring colonies, soliciting information upon their constitution, rules and regulations, and propos•ng a reciprocation of interest by exchanges of plants, seeds, &c. They propose that the annual subscription of members should be 10s. 6d., and that a donation of ten guineas should constitute a life member. That the list of prizes for the exhibition of subjects should be remodelled or revised, chiefly with the view of abolishing “second prizes,’’ at the same time they would suggest where any article of competition so ciosely approximates in merit as to create a ‘difference in opinion with the Judges as to •he choicest, an extra prize should be awarded to the one of such article as may be adjudged to be a mere shade in inferiority to the other. That the Judges should be invested with a discretionary power to award prizes to such objects as they might deem worthy of con81deration; uo such prize, in any case, to BXce ed in value the maximum limit in the • s t for similar articles. toJk conc luding these remarks the Commitbeg earnestly to impress upon the subCt ibers the necessity of the most strenuous x ertions being made to carry out and to supt ° rt the objects of the Society. • Two or fee annual exhibitions appear to them to be S an insignificant part ol its duty.

It must be acknowledged that the Society can scarcely, at this moment, boast of vitality; and it is self-evident that unless the most vigorous measures be speedily adopted, an association that has existed, through evil report an good report, for a period of nearly ten years, must at once sink into oblivion. TH. Ross (Signed) I Richd. Baker j J. M. Taylor ... L Henry St. Hill Wellington, Oct. 1851. On the motion of Mr. Woodward, seconded by Mr, J.H. Wallace, the Report was adopted. The rules, as prepared by the committee, were then read and passed seriatim. The Secretary read the Colonial Secretary s reply to an application (made in accordance with the resolution passed at the previous meeting) for a Crown grant for the land appropriated to the Society in the Karori road :— / Colonial Secretary’s Office, Wellington, October2l, 1851. Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th inst., enclosing a resolution of the members of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanic Society to the effect that application should be made for a Crown Grant of the land in the Karori Road, reserved for a Botanical Garden, to trustees named in the resolution. In reply, I am directed by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief to state that he regrets it is out of his power to grant a public reserve to a private society, unless some special reasm for so doing 'be advanced. But his Excellency will immediately proclaim the land in question a reserve for a Botanical Gatdeu, and place it in the hands of the trustees named in your letter, to be held (if such a course shall meet the views of the Society,) by them in trust, for any Municipal Corporation to be hereafter established in Wellington.. 8 I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary, To the Hon. Secretary of the Botanical Society.

After some discussion, it was proposed by Mr. Woodward, and seconded by Mr Spinks—lhat Messrs. St, Hill, Ross, Major Baker, and the Secretary form a Committee to put themselves into communication with the Government respecting the answer of the Colonial Secretary to the application for .a grant of the land for a Botanical Garden. Capt. W. B. Rhodes having declined the office of Treasurer, to which he was elected at the annual meeting, it was proposed by Major Bakei and seconded by H.Ross, Esq.', that Mr. Woodward be requested to undertake that office. Thanks were then voted to the Chairman and the meeting separated.