Rosy and read

Dunedin's Bob Grant with his "Champion of Champions" rose bloom Glorious at last year's Otago Rose Society's show in Dunedin. Photo: Peter McIntosh

In its first 70 years, the Otago Rose Society has produced 603 monthly newsletters. Editor Dave Cannan looks back at how it began.

Even in these days of instant communication through social media, newsletters continue to fill a vital role for groups such as the Otago Rose Society, keeping members up to date with lots of rosy news.

This valuable function was something first recognised by the society 54 years ago and remains a tradition proudly retained, in the form of a monthly 12-page booklet dispersed via email and also in printed form.

Since May 2011 I've been the "editor", pulling together the contributions of many others, locally, nationally and, occasionally, internationally.

But in this the society's 70th year, I got to wondering about how the newsletter began, and why - a curiosity that had me trawling through the archives at the wonderful Hocken Library and also files of the Otago Daily Times and Evening Star.

And there I discovered the man responsible for the newsletter innovation was John Case, an Englishman who came to Dunedin in July 1959 to work in the blood bank at Dunedin Hospital.

The ORS was just 10 at the time and did not have a newsletter. But in May 1965, John, by then the president, produced a copy of the Canterbury Rose Society's newsletter at a committee meeting and said it was time for Otago to have one as well.

He told the committee a newsletter was a good way to encourage membership and to maintain interest in the society, probably clinching the deal by also offering to be the newsletter editor for the first year.

The Otago Rose Society newsletter No.1, published in 1965. Image: Supplied

And so the committee gave it the go-ahead, confirming secretary Mrs J. Rigby was to "type the stencil" and Mr Case was to "duplicate it at his work", the move being announced to members at the society's AGM on June 2, 1965.

As it turned out, John held the editorship for five years, his last newsletter (No61) being the December issue in 1970. The reason was explained in the January 1971 newsletter by "editress" Elizabeth Sinclair, who confirmed John had accepted a new job with the Melbourne Hospital Board. His loss to the ORS was described as "immeasurable", especially his "dynamic personality".

That personality was evident from the outset, the No1 issue (a double-sided A4 rose-pink sheet) concluding with this fairly provocative observation: "A common complaint of new members who attend our meetings is that we are unfriendly. We don't mean to be, of course, and I am certain that no new member ever wants to be made a fuss of. However, the complaint is, to a large extent, a justified one, owing, no doubt, to an innate reserve that exists on those of us who are of Anglo Saxon origin. Can we not encourage members, both new and old, to come to our meetings by setting aside this reserve? Of course we can! We aren't really snooty and most of us are itching for a chance to open up and start talking about roses. Let's do it."

I wonder how that went down with some members?

John also cheekily summed up another regular dilemma - on how to plant roses properly, observing: "There is no shortage of advice. Trouble is some of the advice is difficult to put into practice and there is a good deal of conflict among the various different experts, even when it comes to matters of fundamental principle. Common sense is a great help in sorting it all out."

There was also a call for members to support the ORS sales table by bringing along lots of things to sell, something we still do.

John's mischievous sense of humour was also evident when encouraging prospective new members be introduced at the next meeting, adding: "Explain that there are still three Wednesdays in every month when they can stay at home to watch Maigret" (a popular TV detective series at the time).

More provocation followed in newsletter No3: "We offered this space to the proprietor of a garden shop in Dunedin for a rather paltry sum of one pound. Unfortunately he let us down. According to him we members of the Rose Society don't patronise his shop at all but write to the North Island for everything. What do you think about that?"

There was no mention of which garden shop but, coincidentally (perhaps), in newsletter No4 there was an advertisement for the Arbordale Nurseries, in Bush Rd, Mosgiel, which read: "No need to write to the North Island for your new roses - we can supply the following for delivery in 1966: Tiki, Uncle Walter, Violet Carson, El Alamein, Paddy McGredy and Evelyn Fission."

By June 1966 the newsletter had been published for a year and the AGM was told: "After a full year of publication, it has become evident that our decision to embark on this project has been a popular one. The newsletters have been well-received by our members and its effect upon the attendance at our meetings has been both surprising and gratifying."

Incidentally, the AGM also agreed to a rise in annual subscriptions from "15 bob" to £1, one of the reasons being to accommodate the cost of producing the newsletter.

Fast-forward to March 1972, a year after John's departure to Melbourne, and newsletter No76 proved a real eye-catcher - a bright red masthead was used for the first time, including the National Rose Society motif.

President Jack Johnson explained the popularity of the newsletter justified the extra expense of colour: "I feel sure our past president and first editor Mr John Case must be pleased by the expansion programme of the Otago Rose Society ... the new look and present growth of its [the newsletter's] circulation will be a sense of achievement to him, which I'm sure he envisaged when he started it."

And the rest, as they say, is history. The newsletter remains an integral part of the ORS and its operations, still fulfilling John's original objectives and continued by dedicated editors in recent years - Gwen Campbell, Maureen Viggo, Trish Weir and Marilyn Langford.

And as for John Case? Sadly, I have been unable to find out what became of him once he crossed the Tasman.

ORS life member Lex Donaldson, who remembers John as a "wonderful man", someone who brought a breath of fresh air to the society and quickly became popular with everyone, says nothing more was heard from him once he left Dunedin.

His legacy, however, for writing lively and, at times, irreverent newsletters, remains intact, refreshed each month when a new edition of the newsletter is published.