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From Ferdinand von Mueller to James Casey   4 Jan 1873

Melbourne Botanic Garden

4/1/73

Sir

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, dated 30/12/72,1 by which I am requested to furnish immediately a return of all the distributions effected and contributions obtained in my Department, beyond the supplies to Victorian public institutions, with indications of quality, quantity names and localities. I have now the honor to enquire over what period this return is to extend, and beg respectfully to point out, that, as my directorship commenced in 1857, a return of this kind indicated for all the 16 years of my administration would require many weeks to be prepared, whereas I might find that I had withdrawn unnecessarily much valuable time from important departmental work by preparing a document extending over a far longer period than desired.

When your communication of the 2nd December2 reached me, asking for a far less extensive return, I made arrangements for its compilation as far as the harassing duties at the hot season with inadequate water supply and with now perfectly insufficient labor would admit of such laborious compilation.

If I could be favored with some indications of the purposes for which the return is needed, its elaboration might be very much facilitated.

I have the honor to be

Sir

Your very obedient servant,

Ferd. von Mueller,

Direct. botan. Garden.

The Honorable the Commissioner of Lands & Survey

1

Letter not found

2

Neither letter nor return found. However, M to J. Casey, 15 May 1873, appears to be the return requested; the PS suggests that the request for details of all years of M's directorship had been reduced to one year, 1870.

3

MS written by Georg Luehmann and signed by M.

Please cite as “FVM-73-01-04,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/73-01-04