16th March [1861]1
Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th Instant,2 relative to the disorderly conduct of certain boys selling fruit at the Botanic Garden bridge on Sundays.
In reply I beg to inform you that I have referred your letter for the attention of the superintendent in charge of the Richmond Depot, who will take steps to suppress the nuisance alluded to.3
I have the honor to be
Sir
your most obedt servant
Fredk C Standish
Chief Commissioner
The Government Botanist
&c &c
Botanic Gardens
editorial addition.
On 13 March 1861, M's assistant, C. Wilhelmi, wrote in M's absence on an expedition to the Victorian Alps to Standish, passing on complaints about the boys who sold fruit on Sunday afternoons at the footbridge of the Botanic Garden, 'using obscene language, insulting Ladys when offering their fruits for sale and barricading the footpath with their baskets'. Wilhelmi asked for a policeman to be sent to put a stop to the nuisance.
In an annotation on Wilhelmi's letter, Standish revealed his determination to comply: 'I should wish to see this nuisance put a stop to, and the offenders punished as they deserve'. The superintendent of the Richmond depôt, F. Winch, was ordered to act on the matter, but he said his recruits were too busy with drill, guard and stable duties, and 'scarcely adapted for a duty of so delicate nature'. Standish in response asserted that 'the mere appearance of a constable in uniform would as a rule answer the purpose', and insisted the recruits be used, and Winch complied (Unit 3, VPRS 1199, Public Record Office, Victoria).
Please cite as “FVM-61-03-16,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on