Wholesale Stealing of Plants

Peter Butler. VUW Ground Staff

People who have been pleased to see some planting being done around the area between the student union and Rankine Brown should make the most of it while it remains. At the rate at which the plants are being stolen there will soon be little left to see. Over both the past two weekends some property-minded person, or persons, has taken a substantial quantity of plants, probably with the aid of a vehicle. The emphasis of the thief, or thieves, has been on the larger clumps of bronze and variegated flax, the tussocks and the odd fire-finger and camellia.

It seems unlikely that such a wholesale removal could have gone unnoticed. If you saw the theft or you know someone associated with the university who has just added substantially to his or her garden some of the fairly distinctive plant material that we have been using, then you have a responsibility to pass the information on to the grounds staff. A lot of people talk piously about protecting the environment these days, and yet this sort of thing goes unreported and unchallenged. Do you want your university to remain a drab sterile looking place for the sake of someones selfish "perks" or are you going to do something about it?