From Henry Loch   28 February 1890

Government House

Capetown 28th February 1890

Sir,

I have to thank you for the farewell address which on behalf of the members of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia you have forwarded to me in South Africa after my departure from the Colony of Victoria.1

It has always been a matter of great gratification to me not only to have been associated during the period of my administration with the early beginnings of your important Society, but especially that it was my privilege to have been the first to hold the distinguished Office of its Patron.

It is needless for me to recapitulate the immense good which your Society has done in the past by encouraging and giving material support to exploratory expeditions, especially those of a more scientific character both in the vast continent of Australia and throughout Australasia and New Guinea.

I trust that the successful and eminently useful results which have characterized your efforts in the past may continue to do so in the future and I shall continue to watch with interest the work of your Society and shall be glad to hear from time to time of its proceedings.

On Lady Loch's behalf and my own I thank you for the expressions of goodwill and good wishes for our happiness and welfare in South Africa conveyed in your address.

I have the honor to be

Sir

Your Obedient Servant

(signed) Henry B. Loch2

 

Baron Sir Ferdinand Von Müeller K.C.M.G. &c &c &c

President of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia

 
1
See M and A. C. Macdonald to H. Loch, 15 November 1889 (in this edition as 89-11-15a). Loch was Governor of Victoria from 15 July 1884 to 15 November 1889, before becoming Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa.
2
For a published version of this letter see Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch), vol. 8, part 1 (August 1890), p. 25. There is a handwritten copy among the records of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, A36, f. 250, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

Please cite as “FVM-90-02-28,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/90-02-28