Melbourne,
24/9/83.
The honorable Graham Berry, M.L.A.,
Chief Secretary.
Sir.
I have the honor to inform you, that by last mail I received a letter from Mr Conrad Warnecke of Hamburg,1 informing me, that by order of the Agent General of Victoria he had shipped the 38 cases, containing Dr Sonder's collections of dried plants2 by the Steamship "Marsala" of the Hamburg-Australian Line in the beginning of August, insured there and freight prepaid.
I take the liberty to ask, whether as in former years still any organisation exists in the Department for Gov. Stores, for the clearance and conveyance of this consignment, when it arrives here. In such an event I would solicit, that the needful instructions be issued to the Stores-Department. Mr Warnecke has duely forwarded the bill of loading with his letter.3
I have the honor to be,
Sir
your obed. servant
Ferd. von Mueller.
Letter not found.
See M to L. L. Smith, 16 February 1882 and notes thereto.
The Undersecretary, T. Wilson, replied the same day asking M to send him the bill of lading so it could be 'forwarded to the Stores Department with instruction to clear the boxes on arrival'. M did so the next day with thanks 'for arrangements to clear this large consignment'. The bill of lading was immediately sent to the Secretary of the Tender Board who was instructed to send the cases to M. In M to G. Berry, 20 October 1883, M informed the Chief Secretary that the cases had arrived. The cases were finally sent to M on 13 November; in a note on the file, the Secretary of the Tender Board explained that 'the Building was not sooner ready to receive the packages'. M wrote to Berry the next day (M to G. Berry, 14 November 1883 (in this edition as 83-11-14a)), telling him that the annex was completed and the cases had been delivered.
Please cite as “FVM-83-09-24,” 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