Acclimatisation Society's Office,
30, Swanston Street,
Melbourne, 19. April 1864
My dear Sir George.
Without for a moment wishing to be intrusive to your Excellency I would venture a suggestion for your kind consideration in regard to the rebels, who at last now will bow to British authority.2 It appears to me, that at the close of this dreadful war the remaining hostile and subjugated natives could not well remain in the territory, which will always awaken in them recollections of the past struggles and excite their barbarous feelings to occasional new atrocities. Hence it suggested itself to my reflection, that a total removal of the hostile Moaries3 from the scenes of the war could prove only beneficial to both them & the British settlers of New Zealand in all futurity. Could to effect this not those Moaries, who bore arms against the Government, be removed to the Chatham Islands, a group extensive enough in area to support the remainder of these fighting hordes. If these isles were ceded to them under British supremacy they would probably be contented & submit to such lenient surveillance, as your Excellency desired to exercise. If the Chatham Islanders were then transferred to a circumscribed suitable territory of N.Z., they would probably better their condition, but moreover the poor aboriginal Chathamians now under subjugation could be released of that servitude to which they have been so cruelly subjected by the force of the superior Moarie tribes and these people might become happy & peacable settlers of New Zealand.
I have such a profound veneration of your Excellency's philanthropy, which we have so often witnessed, that I ventured to submit to you these few sentiments, which are dictated by a feeling heart. Perhaps there are unsurmountable obstacles to the project; perhaps also your Excellency may regard my suggestions as devoid of propriety; but yet I felt that any suggestions, which might possibly tend towards establishing a final satisfactory arrangement with the Moaries would not be hastily rejected by your Excellency. So thus I claim for it your indulgence.
May I venture to offer you my humble effigies [with]4 a solicitation, that I may be favored by yours for my album of celebrities whose correspondence I enjoyed.
If your Excellency will kindly inform me, what animals & plants would prove welcome to you for utilitarian purposes in N.Z. I will feel proud to secure them as far as it lies within my power.
With profoundest regards
yr
Ferd. Mueller
His Excellency
Sir Geo Grey, KC.B.
Please cite as “FVM-64-04-19,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-04-19