Melbourne,
25/5/83
To E. Thomas Esqr
Private Secretary of the honorable James Service,
Premier and Treasurer of Victoria.
Sir,
In reply to your note of the 22. inst.,2 which reached me yesterday, I have the honor to state for the information of the honorable the Premier, that one copy of the "systematic Census of Australian plants"3 was delivered addressed to the Editor of each of the following papers "Argus," "Age" "Daily Telegraph", "Herald" and "World" through a junior of my office on the 22 March, which was Thursday before Easter. These copies were brought by the Junior to each of the Offices personally, who asserts, that he has the clearest recollection on the subject, as he took the copies on the afternoon before the Easter Holidays. The copies not having been sent by post, they were merely entered in the alphabetic record of recipients of this work without date, but as the Junior of the Office is a very reliable person, I have not the slightest doubt that his statement is quite correct. The book of postal sendings bears this out indirectly, because many entries were made about the same time of copies forwarded by post, but as numerous copies were available by approval of the hon. the Chief Secretary for distribution, they could not all be sent out simultaneously. In each of the copies of the work, sent to the above mentioned newspapers I wrote an inscription to the Editor, adding, to the best of my recollection, that the sending was "on behalf of the Victorian Government".
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient
Ferd. von Mueller.
The name of the Junior, who delivered the copies at the newspapers is Mr Léon Henry; he adds, that in each instance he delivered the copy at the counter of the paper and obtained a promise from the person in attendence, that the book would be delivered to the Editor without delay.
F.v.M.4
On 26 May, Service noted: 'I send this to Mr Haddon as it seems circumstantial enough to cause wonder whether there is not some hitch in the Argus office — will be glad to learn the result of enquiry'. On 25 May Thomas wrote to the Government Printer, J. Ferres, for a statement of the supply of M's works to newspapers since 1 January 1881. Ferres replied on 30 May that part 8 of Eucalyptographia was supplied to the Argus, Age, and Daily telegraph on 4 April 1882 by messenger.
On 8 June Haddon commented on the letters of M and Ferres: 'I must apologize for not returning the enclosed official papers re Baron von Mueller's books earlier. Sheer want of time to write is my only excuse. Only a Premier can understand how incessant & engrossing are the demands on the time of an Editor of a big paper. As regards the Baron, I will deal first with Mr Ferres's memo. He is quite right in stating that a number of the Eucalyptographia was received at the office about the time he mentions. I had forgotten, when I wrote to you first, that this was one of the Baron's publications. But you will observe what Mr Ferres's memo. proves. It shows that from 1st Jany 1881 to May 30th 1883, nearly two years & a half, the Govt printer, at all events, supplied only 1 Part of a single work of the Baron's to the three Melbourne dailies! As regards the Baron's mere circumstantial account of the delivery of the "Census of Plants", at the Argus Office, I can only say that after the most minute & searching enquiry, not a trace of the book can be found. Of course, as we receive hundreds upon hundreds of books & parcels in the course of the year, it would be useless to expect the clerks in the front office to remember the receipt of this particular parcel but, as I told you before, special enquiry was made for it all over the Office by the Agricultural Editor of the Australasian, who had seen it noticed in some other journal. I also find gentlemen in our office, through whose hands books pass, remembering all about the publications of the Observatory, of Profr M'Coy, & of the Scientific departments of other colonies, but knowing nothing of works from the Govt botanist of Victoria, with the exception of the Eucalyptographia, which came from the Govt Printer. Beyond this I cannot go, but it certainly is remarkable that there should be such a consensus of opinion in the office that the Baron systematically ignores us.'
On 16 June Thomas suggested to Service that: '(1.) Call unexpectedly at his [i.e. M's] office & ask to see the record he refers to in his letter of 25 May (2.) Then, or afterwards, see & question Mr Leon Henry the alleged deliverer (3) Request the Baron, as the donations are made on behalf of the Colony to submit in every case a List for the Premier's approval of proposed recipients'.
On 3 July Thomas wrote to the Chief Secretary, G. Berry, intimating the desire of the Premier that 'no works printed at the expense of the Colony be bestowed on its behalf without authority in writing having first been obtained from the Premier'. The Under Secretary, T. Wilson, acknowledged the letter on 16 July on behalf of Berry, and informed Thomas that instructions had been issued accordingly (P83/334, unit 4, VPRS 1163/P1, PROV).
Please cite as “FVM-83-05-25,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-05-25