To Joseph Hooker   10 August 1872

Melbourne

bot Garden

10/8/72

 

The Copy of my Defense report,1 dear Dr. Hooker, is for your private use only, as it has hitherto not yet been published. The good sense of the Legislation has sheltered me against degradation and ruin. I hope, that I can send you a few words on the morning of the mail-closure, as to the final decision of the Ministry and Legislative Assembly in my case.2

Always yours

Ferd. von Mueller

1
M to C. Duffy, 6 February 1872. Hooker's copy is filed in RBG Kew, Misc. Reports, Melbourne, Mueller, 1853-1896, ff. 89-105.
2
For the Parliamentary debates see Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, 1872, vol. 14, pp. 919-24 (Assembly, 8 August 1872); pp. 1178-80 (Assembly, 3 September 1872); pp. 1207-14 (Assembly, 4 September 1872); pp. 1450-1 (Council, 24 September 1872). The conclusion reached was that M's Department be split into three: the Govt. Botanist's Department, under M and controlling the Botanic Gardens in the narrow sense (78 acres); The Government House Domain (approx 200 acres) formerly planted and maintained under M, to be separated and placed under the control of a curator to be appointed; and a Forests Department, controlled by William Ferguson, who was to oversee a new State Nursery outside Melbourne, at Macedon. This solution had been proposed by Clement Hodgkinson, the permanent head of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey. Part of his report was quoted in the debate: see p. 1179. His full report is in PROV, K72/19018, unit 750, VPRS 44. See also notes to M to J. Casey, 4 September 1872.

Please cite as “FVM-72-08-10a,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/72-08-10a