9/5/88
It does not seem to me, dear Mr Macdonald, that we here could approach either the R.G.S. of London or the Imperial Government on Mr Bevan's behalf directly, as he was not our emissury.
I cannot see how a recommendation, that his companions should or ought to share in any reward, could be rendering the reward useless to him, as he would get the main-portion of it.1
Poor Hartmann, Hunstein, Denton and many others never received anything for such discoveries, as they made by their private means and sacrificed their lives.2
Of course we are anxious to see Mr Bevan rewarded, but we can not single him out individually and overlook every one else; nor can we support a specified claim from here, as the extent of reward should be fixed3 by the Governor of New Guinea and the Home Government. Dr W. Macgregor is sure to be consulted anyhow by the Secr. of State for the Colonies on such a subject. In accordance with the wish of the Council I wrote a letter of felicitation to H Exc Dr M'Gregor,4 also an unofficial letter to Sir Edw Strickland,5 asking him to favor us in the Bevan case with fuller information. Copies of both letters are in my copying book here.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller
Can you still kindly supply one or two copies of new publication.6 I shall make good use of them.
See T. Bevan to M, 4 May 1888, and notes thereto.
Carl Hartmann, Carl Hunstein, William Denton. See, respectively, M to Gardeners' chronicle, December 1887 (in this edition as 87-12-00h); M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 21 July 1891 and notes thereto; W. Armit to M, 20 July 1888.
fixed above recommended deleted.
See M to W. MacGregor, 7 May 1888 (in this edition as 88-05-07a).
Letter not found.
Not identified. See M to A. Macdonald, 7 May 1888.
Please cite as “FVM-88-05-09,” 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