Melbourne bot. Garden
11/5/65.
Sir
In reply to your letter of this day1 I have the honor to inform you, that at the Grand Military Concert held under the patronage of his Excellency the Governor on Saturday last at the botanic Garden the entrance fee of one shilling was levied from such visitors as not absolute refuse to pay it, because this Concert was purposely instituted for the support of the Head Quarters Band. In having granted concession to the arrangement I thought I was justified to do so, because I was distinctly informed on several former occasions, that whenever a precedent of such fetes & their purposes existed it would be unnecessary to seek the special permission of the ministerial head of the Department for these fetes, and as already at least once before (several years ago) a concert took place here for the benefit of the Military Band this last concert came under the rule laid down. I had moreover less scruples of conceding to the request in as much as the Garden is indebted to many gratuitous performances of the Band, the residents of South Yarra having not subscribed like those in the vicinity of some of our parks towards the aid of these musicians.
If you desire, that in future every application for the use of the Garden for public fetes should be submitted for your consideration and also those for which as in the case of the horticultural Society &c there is a precent2 I shall not fail to obey such regulation.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
your most obedient servant
Ferd. Mueller.
The honorable the Chief Secretary.3
Please cite as “FVM-65-05-11a,” 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