Sunday,
Have just written dear Mr Macdonald, to Major Boyd1 as I owed him a letter, and have expressed myself in the ideas brought out at our consultation and enunciated at the Council-meeting on Friday, in which you all acquiesced. Ought in N Zealand a branch of our RGSA be established? Without that, it would be difficult to get the NZ Government to contribute to the funds of the expedition Or would it be better to have a antarctic Committee in the NZ Institute Do you know any one there to take up the subject?
Always regardfully
your
Ferd von Mueller
Was very glad to meet your two friends yesterday and discussed Leichhardt-search and goldfinding with them.
No correspondence between M and W. A. J. Boyd has been found. Boyd, an active member of the Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, was also a part-time soldier; he was gazetted Major on 13 January 1892, effective 15 December 1891 (Brisbane courier, 15 January 1892, p. 6), so that 1892 is in practical terms the earliest date on which the present letter could have been written.
Please cite as “FVM-92-00-00d,” 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