Barry Sligh - a man of many changes - entrepreneur, stone mason,
nurseryman, philanthropist....
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Barry and two Nepalese children
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Barry Sligh has become a name familiar to many New Zealanders since he
established his home, garden and nursery at Taunton Gardens at the head of
the Lyttelton Harbour and they were featured on national television on
Maggie's Garden Show. Again he was the subject of newspaper articles when
he promoted a scheme to help the education of children in an isolated
village in Nepal.
Barry's career
What sort of career path leads someone to Barry's situation? Barry would
say that the answer is wide-ranging life experiences. I asked him to trace
the path to his present situation.
The first venture - getting overseas
He grew up in Methven, a quiet country town, before the days when the ski
industry put it on the map. The family then moved to Invercargill in the
south of the South Island. Barry didn't much enjoy school and wanted to
have what we Kiwis call his O.E. - his overseas experience. His father
told him that if he passed his School Certificate and earned the money for
a return ticket he would be allowed to go. He did both, earning the money
in the school holidays at the Alliance Freezing Works.
Supporting himself and getting training
At seventeen he set out, working his way on a cargo ship as a supernumerary
- doing the odd jobs. He did a trip on a three-speed bike around England
and went to Norway, accepting any work he could find as he went. In Masume
he sold chamois skins to tanneries and there began his interest in leather.
Back in England he went to Smithfield College and completed a diploma in
the meat trade. He moved on to Iceland and saw interesting sheep with long
wool and leather without grease. Next in Canada at the Atherbasca oil
sands he worked ten hours seven days a week. There he heard that his
father had died.
Entrepreneurial venture 1 - quality leather fashion goods
He returned home and after working in Bowrons tanneries and being promoted
to associate sales manager, he started his own business - a factory in
Christchurch manufacturing leather hot pants and leather ties. This
business in the late sixties employed fifty women and exported to Japan, to
Canada, to the USA and to Harrods in London. The business earned a
government export award. It was an industry with high pressure because of
the changes in fashion and the varying quality of the skins. Barry aimed
for quality, not quantity, and found he got the best results using New
Zealand skins processed in Spain, but to patterns of Italian design and
then exporting them to Japan! Even the buttons were imported.
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The stone house Barry built at Taunton Gardens
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Working as stone mason to build the house of his dreams
In 1972 he bought land at Allandale at the head of the Lyttelton Harbour.
At that time it was used for growing apricots. There was a small house on
the property where he lived while doing extensive reconstruction using
stone from his own land and nearby Charteris Bay. The stones were all hand
chipped. It took three or four weekends to chip enough stone for one
weekend's block laying. The walls are 450 mm (18 ins.) thick.
Entrepreneurial venture 2 - quality wool and mohair
Barry sold the leather business and developed a business called Nature's
Choice selling garments knitted from New Zealand wools and mohair for the
tourist market. He gave up this business just before the sharemarket crash
in 1987.
Entrepreneurial venture 3 - quality plants
Now he has developed a boutique nursery exporting plants, mainly catering
for people who want specialty plants, hostas in particular. He has a
collection of hybrid hostas and develops plants of good quality under
stringent conditions using ultraviolet lights. He also produces a trillium
native to North America working with the Mount Cuba Centre in the USA This
is financed by the du Pont family solely to develop propagation techniques
for Piedmont flora. The aim is to save them from extinction and to
discourage collection from the wild.
Searching for rhododendrons in Nepal
Barry joined an expedition to Nepal organised by the Dendrology Society - a
party made up of people from New Zealand and Argentina. The aim of the
expedition was to look at rhododendrons in the wild and collect seed of
daphne bholoua. These are growing extremely well and are being sold to
raise funds the school. They are available at Taunton Gardens and at any
functions where members of the New Zealand group are giving talks.
It was a 26 day trek into a totally isolated area. In three weeks they
climbed and descended the equivalent of three ascents of Mt Cook, (New
Zealand's highest mountain). The people on the trek, all specialists in
trees, shrubs and alpines, studied an amazing collection of plants and took
some 3,000 photographs. Much of the seed they collected was planted out
and the plants are now 20 cms (8 ins) high.
Warm welcome at Pangkoma
En route they visited the village of Pangkoma. Sir Edmund Hillary had
begun a school there and a Sherpa called Ngima Dorji had made it his
responsibility to finish the school. The people from the Dendrology
Society were accepted like family. The warmth of the welcome was all the
more impressive because the people had so little. In return they wanted
to increase the children's awareness of the surrounding flora. Before this
visit they were interested only in what was burnable or edible.
