14/11/63.
Dear Mr Fitzgibbon,
If you intend to offer any resistance to the occupation of part of the northern reserve of the bot Garden by the highlanders, it will be necessary to do it at once & energetically, as they have commenced the survey of the locality.1
yours very truly
Ferd. Mueller.
The Caledonian Society had previously sent a deputation to meet Richard Heales, Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey on 29 October 1863, seeking possession of part of the grounds to avoid having to erect a temporary grandstand for their events, and Heales told them that he approved of the objects contemplated by the society and he would forward his opinion to the Chief Secretary, James McCulloch, 'in whose department it appeared that the land applied for was vested' (Argus, 30 October 1865, p. 5, col. g). M to R. Heales, 29 November 1863, presumably expressed his own opinion on the proposal. On 3 December 1863, a deputation from the Caledonian Society met McCulloch 'to solicit the grant of a portion of the Zoological Gardens for the purposes of the society. … They had laid out six acres'. McCulloch explored objections to the society's having control of land they used only a few times per year, but said he would speak to Richard Heales (Herald (Melbourne), 3 December 1863, p 3). On 29 January 1864 a deputation from the Ancient Order of Foresters met the Chief Secretary with a similar request. McCulloch replied that 'he could give no promise on the matter, save that he would do what he could; at the same time he agreed not to pledge himself on the same subject to the Caledonian Society or any other public body' (Argus, 30 January 1864, p. 4, col g). M to R. Heales, 30 January 1864, formally requested that the land not be conveyed to the Caledonian Society.
Please cite as “FVM-63-11-14a,” 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