NO BOTANIC GARDENS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 320, 3 April 1928, Page 18

NO BOTANIC GARDENS

WHAT DOMINION LACKS KEW DIRECTOR’S CRITICISM Press Association. WELLINGTON, Monday. In his report to the Government, Doctor A. W. Hill, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, says that it appears to him that a great need for the Dominion is a national botanic garden. Owing to differences of climate he does not think the spot would adequately represent the flora of New Zealand to full advantage. Further, each centre regards its own gardens as being of considerable importance. Dr. Hill considered that an ideal arrangement would be a national garden in two parts, one at Dunedin, where high alpine plants could be grown, and one at Auckland or Wellington. He also suggests Wellington as the distributing centre and that a Dominion director should also be established there. The chief need at Wellington will be to bring together a collection of the floras of different parts of the world. Dr. Hill criticises the waste of money of some centres in the erection of costly winter gardens, housing poor collections of plants with no botanic interest. Really, he says, there are no botanic gardens in New Zealand.