[Editor: This untitled item, about Wattle Day, is an extract from the “Orchard, Vineyard & Garden” section published in The Leader (Melbourne, Vic.), 2 October 1909.]
[A meeting, largely attended]
A meeting, largely attended, principally by ladies, was held in the Royal Society’s rooms at Sydney recently, with the view of stimulating Australian national sentiment, and connecting it, as the circular puts it, “with a love of our beautiful flora.”
The New South Wales Government Botanist, Mr. J. H. Maiden, presided, and expressed the opinion that the wattle blossom, which was plentiful in all the States of Australia, should be recognised as the national emblem.
A resolution was adopted “that, with the view of stimulating Australian national sentiment and connecting it with a love of our beautiful flora, we suggest the desirability of setting apart throughout the Commonwealth a day on which an Australian national flower (the wattle blossom) might be worn, and its display encouraged, while wattle might also be sown and planted on that day.”
It is proposed to communicate with public bodies and private individuals in other States, and to hold the first “wattle day,” if the movement is successful, in 1910, but it is not suggested that the day should be a holiday.
Source:
The Leader (Melbourne, Vic.), 2 October 1909, p. 10 (columns 2-3)
Editor’s notes:
Commonwealth = the Commonwealth of Australia; the Australian nation, federated on 1 January 1901
J. H. Maiden = Joseph Henry Maiden (1859-1925), botanist, public servant, and Wattle Day campaigner; he was born in St John’s Wood (London, UK) in 1859, came to Australia in 1880, and died in Turramurra (Sydney, NSW) in 1925
See: 1) Mark Lyons and C. J. Pettigrew, “Maiden, Joseph Henry (1859–1925)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Joseph Maiden”, Wikipedia
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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