Melbourne,
24 March 1892.
T. R. Wilson Esqr
Under Secretary.
Sir
I have the honor to report, that I have just learned, that the vacancy in the Forest-Department will be filled up within that establishment, so that the candidature of Mr Renner for that position has lapsed. May I therefore solicit, that he, through the kindness of the hon the Chief Secretary, participate in the favor, shown to Mr Minchin and Mr French, to remain during the next quarter in the Gov. Botanists Establishment, so long til a position can be found for him.1
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller,
Gov. Botanist.
When the decision was made to abolish the post of Government Botanist from 31 March 1892, M was required to serve written notice on all his staff that their employment would cease on that date (T. Wilson to M, 15 January 1892). There was much opposition to the decision to retire M (see, for example, notes to M to T. Wilson, 23 January 1892), and the decision was rescinded but with a reduced vote meaning that M would need to reduce staff. His decision to retain the highest paid staff member, G. Luehmann, meant that he had to lose some junior staff (M to T. Wilson, 31 January 1892). Various positions were proposed for Renner and he was eventually transferred to the Forest Branch of the Mines Department (M to T. Wilson, 31 March 1892 (in this edition as 92-03-31b), but he was returned to M's department the following year (M to G. Bell, 24 June 1893 (in this edition as 93-06-24b)) though without the quarters he had previously had (M to T. Wilson, 23 September 1893 (in this edition as 93-09-23b)). He was transferred again to the Government Statist (T. Wilson to M, 27 February 1894 (in this edition as 94-02-27a)).
Please cite as “FVM-92-03-24,” 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