244 



Horticultural Society and Garden. 



put any conversation to myself upon paper, 

 because I thought it was too ridiculous to do 

 it. 



Q. Did you, in point of fact, ever state to 

 the clerk, any comments which you heard 

 visitors make on the conduct or character of 

 the proceedings of the officers of the Society? 



A. I believe I did. 



Q. In what manner ? 



A. Merely telling him What was said about 

 the officers of the Society, either regarding the 

 . Garden Committee or the Council. 



Q. Any accounts which you heard, finding 

 fault, or either approving or disapproving of 

 the proceedings ? 



A. Yes. 



Q. Were those observations addressed to 

 you, or was the conversation of the visitors 

 between themselves ? 



A. No ; they were addressed to me. 



Q. Were any of the visitors aware that you 

 would make such a communication to the 

 clerk? 



A. No, certainly not. 



Q. You never stated to any visitors " the ob- 

 servations you make to me I am bound to 

 communicate to the Secretary or the Council?" 



A. No ; I never did. It is very seldom that 

 I made any communication, without it was 

 something very severe, which I wished should 

 be made public, for my own sake, as well as for 

 that of the officers. 



Q. Are you aware whether the labourers 

 who went round occasionally with the visitors 

 were also expected to make similar communi- 

 cations ? 



A. They were ordered to do so. 



Q. Did they make it through you to the 

 clerk of the garden, or did they make it dis- 

 tinctly to you as gardener ? 



A. They made it to the under-gardener, or 

 they came to the clerk of the Council to re- 

 port it in the evening. 



Q. Were those reports sent to the Garden 

 Committee, or merely to Mr. Sabine ? 



A. To Mr. Sabine. 



Garden Reports and Management .— Extracts from the evidence of William 

 Beattie Booth, the Garden Clerk. 



Q. What are the principal parts of your du- 

 ties ? 



A. My duty is to attend to the things that 

 are received in the garden, and the things that 

 are sent from the garden, and to enter in a 

 book the different lists and names of the things. 



Q. Is it not customary, before any works are 

 commenced in the garden, for reports to be 

 submitted to the Secretary, describing what 

 those works are to be ? 



A. Yes, it is. 



Q. Were those reports copied by you, or 

 drawn by you ? 



A. Yes; formerly they were all copied be- 

 fore theyweresentinto Mr. Sabine, but latterly 

 they have been discontinued by Mr. Sabine's 

 orders. 



Q. The copying? 



A. Yes, the copying; and they have not 

 been delivered in to Mr. Sabine for, I should 

 say, three months. 



Q. But previously to that period reports were 

 made and delivered in to Mr. Sabine, upon all 

 the minute works that were to be carried on 

 in the garden ? 



A. Yes. 



Q. Describe the sort of report ? 



A. There were six reports given in : one 

 from the experimental ornamental garden ; 

 another from the flower-garden, and another 

 from the arboretum, by the under-gardeners. 

 There was another from the experimental 

 fruit and kitchen, another from the kitchen- 

 garden, and one from the orchard ; those were 

 the six. And they were weekly given in, — on 

 Monday they were arranged into two heads, 

 the ornamental garden, and the fruit and 

 kitchen garden ; they described the work that 

 was to be done in the course of the week in 

 each department : and there was another re- 

 port of what had been done ; a detail of the 

 work that had been done in the last week. 



Q. Was this done every week ? 



A. Every Monday morning. 



Q. Did it not occupy a great deal of time? 



A. A very great deal of time ; they were not 

 got rid of till night, and they were always sent 

 to Mr. Sabine with the daily report. 



Q. Were there daily reports besides ? 



A. Yes. 



Q. Written daily reports ? 



A. Yes. 



Q. Do you not consider it an unnecessary 

 waste of time, the preparing of all these various 

 reports and written documents ? 



A. There is a vast deal of labour, as well as 

 expense, incurred. 



Q. Does ever any inconvenience arise from 

 the delay in the progress of the work, in con- 

 sequence of its being necessary to give in pre- 

 viously a report of them to obtain the sanction 

 of Mr. Sabine before they are commenced ? 



A. If all the other works that are ordered to 

 be carried on by Mr. Munro had to wait for 

 Mr. Sabine's sanction, the season would be lost. 



Q. Do you consider that the garden, and more 

 especially the horticultural garden, has been 

 kept with as much neatness and regularity as 

 it ought to have been ? 



■ A. Yes, I do; considering what the flower- 

 garden is, that it is laid out in beds very dif- 

 ferent from what we generally understand to 

 be a flower-garden. 



<2. But do you consider that those beds and 

 borders, and the digging of that flower-garden 

 have been kept with as much neatness and re- 

 gularity as would have been expected in a gen- 

 tleman's garden ? 



A. The beds and borders may not have been 

 as clean at certain seasons of the year, but ge- 

 nerally they have been kept very clean. 



Q. In the summer ? 



A. Yes. 



Q. Taking the whole of the garden together, 

 do you consider that it has been kept with as 

 much neatness as a gentleman's garden would 

 have been kept ? 



A. Yes, I do. 



Garden Reports and Management. — Extracts from the evidence of Mr. 

 Munro, the Head Gardener. 



Q. Do you consider that you have been pre- 

 vented occasionally from carrying on works in 

 the garden as expeditiously and as scientifi- 

 cally as you could have done, in consequence 

 of the necessity you were under of giving weekly 

 reports to Mr. Sabine of the works of the week 

 before they were carried into effect ? 



A. Certainly; I could not carry on any but 

 what was ordered to be carried on. 



Q, Were those orders sometimes so long de- 



layed, that inconvenience arose in the conduct 

 of the garden ? 



A. Why, I believe very few have been an- 

 swered for the last twelve months. 



Q. Explain? \ 



A. Reports were made and laid upon the 

 table in the Council Room, but were never 

 looked at. 



Q. Has not great inconvenience in the gar- 

 den arisen from these reports ? 



