From John Lewis to Ferdinand von Mueller   7 Oct 1864

Office of Lands & Survey

Melbourne, 7th Octr, 1864.

My dear Sir,

Mr Hodgkinson has requested me to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 4th instant,¹ enclosing a letter addressed to you by Mr Sprigg² respecting the hurdles about to be removed from the Royal Park for use in reserves under the control of the Board of Land and Works, and I am to thank you for your expressions of sympathy with Mr Hodgkinson in the unfortunate accident which incapacitates him from writing to you, and to state that as it appears from Mr Sprigg's letter, the hurdles are at present in use, instructions for the removal of them will not be immediately given, but they will be sent for on the 1st November next.

While requiring on behalf of the Board of Land and Works the return of this moveable property from the Royal Park, Mr Hodgkinson wishes it to be pointed out to the Trustees that the Board have given up to them the portable iron lodges erected in that Reserve.

And I am to observe that experience and observation have proved that hurdles of the kind about to be removed from the Royal Park do not afford to plantations &c the required protection from cattle, but they are very useful in forming enclosures for protecting from injury by the public plantations on land to which cattle have not access.

It is therefore hoped that during the interval afforded prior to the removal of the hurdles a suitable substitute for them will be found and provided by the Acclimatisation Society.

I am,

My dear Sir,

Yours very truly

John L Lewis

F. Mueller, Esq.

&c, &c, &c,

Botanic Gardens

Melbourne