Melbourne bot. Garden
3/6/70.
Sir
I have the honor to express my best thanks for your goodness of providing for the repayment of the one hundred and fifty pounds, which two years ago I paid out of my slender private means, to effect then at once the transfer of the Dromedaries to the Queensland Government without any accumulating costs.1 This sum having recently been voted by the Legislative Assembly2 I beg now to ask, that you will be pleased to issue authority for the payment of this sum.3
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your very obedient
Ferd. von Mueller C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S.
The honorable
Sir James McCulloch, Kn.
Chief Secretary.
The camels, originally from the Burke & Wills expedition and owned by the Victorian Government, were in the care of the Royal Park Trustees until disposed of, some to South Australia and 14 to M to use in the Ladies' Leichhardt Search Expedition in 1865 (G. Sprigg to J. McCulloch, 6 May 1865, L65/4150, unit 209, VPRS 3991/P inward registered correspondence, VA 475 Chief Secretary's Department, Public Record Office, Victoria). The latter were eventually disposed of to the Queensland Government, with M taking the responsibility for their maintenance costs until transfer (M to J. McCulloch, 15 August 1868).
Included in the Estimates for 1870, Chief Secretary, Division 25, Miscellaneous item No. 5, as 'Expenses in connexion with the transfer to the Queensland Government of the Dromedaries formerly obtained for Exploration purposes' (Victoria Parliament Parliamentary Paper 1870, no. B 2, p. 17), and approved in Parliament on 26 May 1870 (Victoria Parliamentary Debates ('Hansard')), vol. 10, p. 599.
M had last asked for reimbursement in M to J. MacPherson, 13 January 1870, having previously requested it more than once (see M to J. MacPherson, 25 October 1869 (in this edition as 69-10-25a)). Approval of M's request was minuted on 1 March 1870; McCulloch approved it again on 18 June and the file was forwarded to the Treasurer.
Please cite as “FVM-70-06-03a,” 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