The gardens of academe

One of the undoubted joys of the University of Oxford is the gardens of its various constituent colleges. Some, such as that at Balliol, comprising a series of well-tended lawns, are pretty basic; others like the ones that grace the grounds of Magdalen and New Colleges are spectacular: the Meadow at Magdalen, with its wild drifts of Fritillaria meleagris (snakeshead fritillary), offers one of the most entrancing spring landscapes to be found anywhere in the world.

Algernon Thomas, Oxford 1883, shortly after he was 
appointed professor of natural history at Auckland

Of the four professors appointed to the Auckland University College in 1883, two had Oxford connections, the others came from the equally gardened University of Cambridge. Of these it was Algernon Thomas (Balliol, 1878), the professor of natural history, who did the most to translate the idea that one of the adornments of a university was found in its surroundings; and from a more practical perspective, plantings of indigenous flora were useful teaching and research resources.

It took time though for the gardens to evolve; and notwithstanding early suggestions that the college would take over the spectacularly sited grounds of Government House, it was only with the opening of its Arts building (Roy Lippincott, 1926), that the college's garden could be described as respectable. By then Thomas was long retired from the college faculty, but he was there at the opening and, from the evidence of the building's surrounding plantings, was an abiding influence on the college’s approach to its environs.

From the time of his arrival in New Zealand on 1 May 1883, Thomas had been impressed by the country’s indigenous flora; he not only taught and researched the subject, but was also an active environmental preservationist. In 1891 he moved a resolution at the Christchurch meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science encouraging the preservation of the native fauna and flora of New Zealand and he was a staunch advocate for the preservation of the Waitakeres; after his death in 1937, his family gave 100 acres of bush and, later, purchased and gifted Lion Rock at Piha in his memory to ensure its continued preservation. But the most obvious exegesis of his interest in indigenous flora came in 1890 when he acquired ten acres in Epsom, somewhat cheaply because it was a remnant of the Maungawhau lava field and thus difficult to ‘break in’.

Withiel Thomas reserve in 2012

Rather than making a conventional ‘European’ garden, Thomas focussed on the cultivation of indigenous species, albeit not exclusively; he also bred daffodils, to the later derision of the writer of the university’s centennial history. Fragmentary remains of Thomas’ garden survive off Mountain Road as the Withiel Thomas Reserve and as part of various private properties. The reserve is one of the city’s few designed sublime spaces, despite the invasive roar of motor vehicles from the nearby Newmarket Viaduct (Ministry of Works, 1966/NZTA, 2012). Its continued preservation is due largely to the efforts of anonymous volunteers in keeping down pest plant infestations and removing litter.

Thomas' design for a garden at the front entrance of Auckland Grammar School,

c. 1915

This focus on indigenous flora characterised the other educational landscapes Thomas had a hand in making. As chairman of the Auckland Grammar Schools Board (1916-1937), he designed the grounds of the new Auckland Grammar School (Richard Abbott, 1916), also in Mountain Road, as well as those of the Mt Albert, Epsom Girls and Takapuna Grammar Schools. His authorship of these gardens has been forgotten; as, indeed, has his role as one of the first garden designers in the country to focus on and promote the cultivation of indigenous flora in a rapidly urbanising environment.