From Thomas Elliot to William Hooker1    28 December 1861

Downing Street

28th December 1861

Sir

I am directed by the Duke of Newcastle to transmit to you, for your information, the enclosed copy of a despatch from the Governor of Queensland,2 on the subject of a proposal which he had received through you from Mr Bentham, for the publication of an Australian Flora on a plan similar to that of the Flora of Hong Kong.3

I am

Sir

Your obedient servant

[T. F.] Elliot

Sir William Hooker

&c &c &c

1
MS black-edged.
2
MS annotation by Elliot:'No 40 - 30th of July 1861.'The despatch, from Governor George Bowen, is at ff. 65-7. It reports the receipt of a letter from W. Hooker enclosing George Bentham's circular letter (see G. Bentham to W. Hooker, 6 May 1861) and states that 'by the enclosed Minute of Council it will be seen that Queensland will be ready to bear its fair proportion of the expense if the other Colonies should also be found willing to cooperate ... P.S. Since the above despatch was written I have been informed that Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia will join Queensland in guaranteeing the required sum of £250 per volume. Sir John Young and Sir Henry Barkly think, and I quite agree with them that Mr Bentham should avail himself of the cooperation of Dr Mueller the Government Botanist of Victoria.' An extract from the Minutes of Proceedings of the Executive Council of Queensland, 29 July 1861 (ff. 68-70), summarizes the financial conditions set out by Bentham, considers 'such a work ... an important addition to Botanical Literature and one of peculiar interest to the Australian Colonies' and 'requests that His Excellency, in replying to the letter of Sir William Hooker, will notify the readiness of this Government to recommend to the Queensland Parliament to undertake its share of the Guarantee and to purchase the required number of copies ... whenever Sir William Hooker shall inform His Excellency that the other Australian Colonies ... are also ready to cooperate.'
3
Bentham (1861).

Please cite as “FVM-M61-12-28,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/M61-12-28