Melbourne, 26th September 1892
I have the honor to submit herewith for your favorable consideration an application for a special advance of £30.- .- — Thirty pounds —, to enable me to pay the salaries of J. Minchin and C. French jr.,1 herbarium assistants, for the month of October. Pay for these two officers has been provided on the estimates of my Branch only to the end of September, and I have therefore the honor to solicit that you will be pleased to make provision for them on the Additional Estimates pending their transfer to another Branch of the Public Service.2
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your most obedient servant
Ferd von Mueller,
Govt. Botanist
The Honorable the Chief Secretary
Charles H. French.
A draft letter in an unknown hand, dated 4 October, has been crossed out and annotated 'Letter instead' by the Under Secretary, T. Wilson. The draft, headed 'Forwarded to the Under Treasurer', reads: 'I shall be glad if he will be good enough to move the Honorable the Treasurer to authorise the amount applied for in this Advance to be charged temporarily to funds at his disposal, pending provision to meet this expenditure being made on the Additional Estimates of this Department for the current financial year. J. Minchin and C. French Jr. are officers whose services are no longer required at the Government Botanists branch, and provision for their salary was accordingly made for three months only from 1st July last. Up to the present time suitable vacancies have not been found to which they could be transferred.'
In the Additional estimates of expenditure, presented to Parliament on 14 February 1893, the provision for the two herbarium assistants was increased by £270, sufficient to cover the expenditure for the full financial year ending 30 June 1893 (Victoria Parliamentary Paper B 40, p. 9). This amount was requested in M to A. McLean, 7 December 1892 (in this edition as 92-12-07a).
MS written by Georg Luehmann and signed by M.
Please cite as “FVM-92-09-26,” 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