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of the Darwin Botanic Gardens’, in North Australian Research Bulletin, December 1980, no 7; Advertiser, 16 October 1923; M Holtze,
‘The Capabilities of the Northern Territory for Tropical Agriculture’, paper read before the RGSA, SA, 4 July 1901; Personal details on Holtze
family from documents held by Miss L S Hughes, Woodville, SA, Mrs W Ruediger, Morgan, SA.
EVE GIBSON, Vol 1.
HOLTZE, NICHOLAS (1867–1913), botanist, was born in 1807 at Bunsk in Russia, near the Siberian border,
first child of Dr Maurice William Holtze, botanist, and his wife Evlampia, nee Mesinzoff. In 1872 he accompanied
his parents to Australia, where the family settled near Palmerston in the Northern Territory. It appears that most of
his education took place at home as the first school in Palmerston did not open until January 1877. In March 1879
he started his first job as a messenger boy with the overland telegraph office at a salary of two Guineas per week—
a considerable sum for a 12-year-old at that time. He was later transferred to Southport, then back to Port Darwin,
still as a messenger. In May 1882 he was assigned to Southport as an assistant with the Postmaster’s Department,
but resigned in August of that year to become a clerk, fifth class, in the office of the Government Resident with a
salary of 130 Pounds per year.
In 1891 when his father, Maurice Holtze, relinquished his position as Government Gardener of the Government
Gardens in Palmerston to take the post of director of the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide, the Government Resident,
J G Knight, recommended that Nicholas should be offered the position of Curator (a title never officially given to
his father), on a part-time basis. Knight praised the younger Holtze as ‘an enthusiastic botanist and collector’, urging
that he be paid the sum of 50 Pounds per annum for his services as Curator ‘mornings, evenings, and spare time’.
A further note pointed out that this arrangement would save the Government 500 Pounds on Gardens expenditure.
The appointment was promptly approved. An editorial in the Northern Territory Times and Gazette condemned the
appointment as a ‘hanky panky kind of arrangement’. While noting that Nicholas had some knowledge of botany,
the fact remained that he was only twenty-three years of age and his sole source of botanical knowledge came from
his father. More importantly, the editorial continued, such absurd economising in appointing a part-time curator
was ‘sure to be treated with ridicule by everyone who holds the opinion that if a Government Garden is of any
utility at all it is surely worth independent management’.
As the years went by the position of Curator of the Gardens became more and more of a part-time occupation
for Holtze as his considerable talents were used in other government positions. These included appointments as
Acting Secretary to the Government Resident in March 1892; Acting Deputy Registrar of the Northern Territory
in April 1892; Public Trustee of the Northern Territory in June the same year; confirmed as Deputy Registrar in
- In April 1884 he was appointed Secretary and Accountant to the Government Resident. Further positions
were added: in 1894 he was appointed Inspector of Vine Fruit and Vegetables and, in 1896, Returning Officer for
the electoral district of the Northern Territory. In 1906 he was appointed Deputy Sheriff, and in 1908 was gazetted
as Sheriff. By 1908, despite the fact that his only paid positions were those of Secretary and Accountant to the
Government Resident and as Curator of the Gardens, Holtze, with a total salary of 480 Pounds, and a free house
in the Gardens, was the third highest paid officer in the Northern Territory after the Government Resident and the
Medical Officer. On the transfer of the Northern Territory from South Australia to the Commonwealth Government
in 1911, Holtze’s salary was fixed at 525 Pounds per annum, with no housing allowance, and his title designated
as Government Secretary.
In spite of the difficulties faced in obtaining finance for the Botanic Gardens in the bleak economic climate of
the 1890s, the devastating cyclone which almost wiped out the town of Palmerston in 1897, and the indifference
of C J Dashwood, Government Resident from 1892 to 1905 in respect to the Gardens, Holtze managed to achieve
a great deal in his years as ‘part-time’ curator. In 1895 he reported that the avenue of coconut palms, envisaged
by his father and laid down by Nicholas in 1892, was already a feature of the Gardens ‘and in a few years will be
a splendid sight’. Unfortunately Cyclone Tracy destroyed most of the trees in 1974. He also found time to make
field trips to survey Territory land suitability for various crops. One of his few reports readily accessible outside of
government papers is Reports on Goulburn and Other Islands, printed in 1911.
Nicholas Holtze continued his father’s work in promoting tropical agriculture in the Northern Territory,
continually experimenting with crops such as rice. By 1899 he had 13 varieties of rice under trial. He was also
to the forefront in realising the potential of mechanical harvesting. In spite of continual rejection of government
funding to purchase a mechanical harvester he managed to organise a demonstration of mechanical harvesting
for a rice crop on the farm of Messrs Milton and Ferric in 1911. Unfortunately the only man who could operate
the machine broke his arm while trying to start it, and the harvest had to be gathered in the normal way. In his
final report, dated 21 January 1913, Holtze still maintained that mechanical harvesting of crops such as rice,
in conjunction with mixed farming, would ‘prove the solution of the profitable utilization of our tropical coast
country by a European race’.
Lack of reliable machinery also proved to be a problem with another of Holtze’s successful experiments, with
sisal hemp. In 1893, 6 000 of the plants had been ordered from Florida. Of the 5 300 plants that survived the long
journey, 5 000 were sold and the remaining 300 planted in the Gardens. By 1897 there were 2 000 plants, progeny
of the original shipment, and in 1905 Holtze had a further thirty acres (12 hectares) of sisal hemp planted at a rate
of 537 plants per acre. The potential for the plant was enormous. In 1907 the United States alone had imported
raw sisal fibre worth over eight million Pounds Sterling. At the same time it was estimated that Australia could
use 10 000 tonnes of fibre annually for use in binder twine and rope. However, in order to supply this lucrative
market, machinery was needed to extract the fibre from the leaves. The government finally agreed to provide the
machinery, which arrived in September 1909. As the machines were operated by inexperienced prison inmates
there were many initial problems. In spite of this the trials were regarded as successful and interest in the crop