Melbourne botan. Garden
15/8/68.
Honored and dear Sir.
Let me solicit, that you will take into kind consideration, whether the sum, which I paid to redeem the debt for maintenance of the camels during this year should not be refunded. In complying with the request to surrender these animals unconditionally to the Queensland Government, it became necessary, that payment should be rendered previously for their maintenance at Carpentaria beyond the stipulated time; — and to remove all difficulties thus far I at once rendered the payment of £150.- .- from my very slender private means, the Ladies Committee having no fund left. I may be permitted to draw your kind attention also to the circumstance, that altho' the Leichhardt Search Expedition enjoyed a subsidy of £500.- .- from your Government, that this sum would have not even sufficed to keep the Camels during the last three years, had they remained in Victoria. They would have been here a source of continuous expense, and thus you may perhaps not be disinclined to see Parliament or rather Government refunding this final outlay of £150.- .- Had the season not been such, when the Expedition went through the interior, as even in Australian History was unparalleled as regards drought, then in all wordly probability the whole party would have reached the west coast, and the Camels with your permission could have remained there, an acceptable gift to the West Australian Government.
It would fall rather heavy on me were I to loose the outlay, which I incurred for these animals, the expedition having been besides a heavy tax on my private resources. I am now spending my twenty second year in Australia and have done no good, altho' I even brought some capital to Australia many years before the gold-period.
A scientific course of life like mine in a new country involves very heavy expenses, which to avoid it is impossible, unless the objects of such a life are abandoned. In your own elevated public position you will have often found, how severe the monetary sacrifices must be. Were my position so well endowed as that of many other heads of establishments, I would gladly sacrifice the little sum now asked for along with what has gone from my private properties in former years; but as it is I must ask you to take this claim into your kind consideration.
Let me remain, dear Mr M'Culloch, your very regardful
Ferd. von Mueller.1
Please cite as “FVM-68-08-15,” 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 23 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/68-08-15