Melbourne botanic Garden
2/3/71.
Sir
I have the honor to enquire, whether it would be possible for the Stores Department to defray any heavy freight for large consignments of plants for the botanic Garden.
The small vote for incidental expenses, to which along with all small repairs and other minor outlays the freights also had to be charged in former years has been also reduced in 1871, and is utterly insufficient to bear charges for heavy freight. Even in former years the Director had to bear numerous expenses which legitimately could and should have been charged to the incidental vote, which vote even then was insufficient, and his wordly1 means are no longer such that he can bear, as he has done for 17 years most extensively, departmental expenses out of his private income. If it was not for the generosity of the P. & O. Company and a few Ship-owners and Commanders of vessels, the departmental interchanges could not have gone on, as they have done, but even with these exceptional advantages, the limited means of the department impair a vigorous system of interchange, so particularly desirable to us here in a young country.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller,
Direct. botan. Garden.
The honorable the Chief Secretary2
Please cite as “FVM-71-03-02,” 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 17 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/71-03-02