Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne botanic Garden,

10. March 1866.

Sir

In accordance with your request I have the honor of submitting my written views in reference to the abolishment of the Assistantship at the botanic Garden, a measure for which I have given already the principle reasons in several minutes arising out of a correspondence on the subject.

1

M had proposed the abolition of the position of Assistant Government Botanist, held by C. Wilhelmi, in M. to J. McCulloch, 25 February 1866, in this edition as 66-02-25a. McCulloch pointed out that as a civil servant Wilhelmi would have to be compensated if his services were dispensed with and suggested that notice be given to Heyne instead, whose salary was almost the same as that of Wilhelmi but who did not have tenure.

Almost every year discontentedness having been expressed in Parliament or in the public press in reference to the apparently great expenditure incurred for the botanic Garden, I am particularly eager to reduce the estimates to the lowest standard , which can be combined with efficiency of the establishment. In doing so I consider I discharge a duty, which I owe to the Government, and act in a sense expressive of your own wishes to excercise the utmost economy in the public expenditure. The discontinuance of the Office of the Assistant would diminish the outlay of the establishment now by £300 annually. It can be effected without causing inconveniences of any kind in reference to future work, in as much as the duties of the occupant of the present assistant-office can be carried out quite well otherwise without any new appointment. I may remark, that no such office exists in the botanic gardens of the other colonies.

The Officer alluded to was originally merely an attendent, paid at daily wages, while I occupied solely the position of Botanist to the Government. While I was engaged in 1855 & 1856 as an Officer of the North Australian Expedition, he was from the position of an ordinary working Gardener to my unlimited surprise and I need not say without my knowledge appointed Acting Government Botanist, a position for which an University Education is required, and on my return he was very reluctantly allowed to remain as Clerk in my office. Subsequently his name appeared as Assistant on the estimates, with a view of securing his attendance at all needful hours, an object which however was not attained.

The duties of the Directorship of the botanic Garden, which soon subsequently I was called on to perform, required and still require my unremitting attention early and late, and as I saw myself unaided at the office during many business hours every day, I found myself compelled to chose one of the most intelligent employees of the garden for performing assistants duties in the horticultural branch, duties which extend far over ordinary office-hours, and which by the peculiar nature of the work of a botanic Garden cannot be confined to Clerk-hours. The expenditure arising for the horticultural assistant thus employed has hitherto been met out of the wages fund, and the real rate of his remuneration as compared to that of the Clerk has been less than half. To transfer the work of the Assistant of the horticultural branch to that of the Clerk would be practically impossible, and would effect no actual saving, as extraremuneration for extra assistance would be required, while such a measure would deprive the department of the services of an officer now trained under me by nearly nine years experience and who in zeal professional and educational acquirements vastly exceeds the Clerk or nominal Assistant. When the latter was provided for on the civil service list I had not the remotest idea, that such a provision should necessitate a permanent appointment, but contrarily I was under the impression, that at any time under some equitable arrangement the Assistant(- or Clerk-)Office might be discontinued. It is evident, that this could be effected under the XII clause of the Civil-service act, that for such purposes the XVI clause actually provides compensation, and that the XXV clause holds out the possibility of transferring dispensed services to a vacancy in any other department. I trust I shall be pardoned for drawing your attention to these clauses, because from the very commencement they led me to believe, that I was justified in recommending the abolishment of the Assistant-Office.

In the interview with you, to which I had the honor to be called this morning,

2

See also J. Moore to M, 9 March 1866, in which Moore requested M to call on the Chief Secretary at 11 o'clock on 10 March.

you were pleased to refer to a certificate, which I granted to Mr Wilhelmi, when his original and temporary services as my attendent were discontinued. I may be allowed to say, that I did not mean to state in this certificate anything, which might be considered as indicative of any genuine scientific professional or administrative acquirements of the recipient of the document. Even more favorable certificates I have granted on three distinct occasions to gardeners, who on their own accord in the course of time quitted the botanic Garden.

I would beg leave to point particularly out, that the only functions, in which Mr Wilhelmi proved of utility to the department, were that of a copying clerk and that of an amanuensis at the botanical Museum, and as no tenant for such positions here is absolutely or permanently needed, I solicited the discontinuation of the expenditure involved, and I begged at the same time, that the officer in question might by your generosity or by the consideration of any of your honorable colleagues be reemployed in some respectable position, happening to be vacant and requiring neither scientific nor professional knowledge. In reference to any letters, which may have been adressed to Mr Wilhelmi by the late Sir Will. Hooker or by Dr Jos. Hooker of Kew, I would beg leave to observe, that it would have been quite impossible for either of these illustrious men to form a just appreciation of the value of Mr Wilhelmi's services or of the extent of his knowledge, the occasion of bringing either by literary intercourse or by practical work at Kew to a test having never arisen. It is readily understood, that any ordinary communications from Mr Wilhelmi would meet with a civil reply, were it only out of deference to my office, to which he happened to be attached. In none of the letters received by me from Kew since the last fourteen years (and these letters are very numerous) Mr Wilhelmi's name was ever mentioned but cursorily on one single occasion.

3

Letter not found.

I can speak in the highest terms of the faithful services of Mr Heyne, from which the horticultural branch of the department derived not unconsiderable benefit, while Mr Wilhelmi did absolutely nothing for it.

As Mr Heyne in his modesty is quite content to serve in his unpretensive position in future as before, and as I do not intend to recommend the restitution of the assistantship, I trust the hon. the Chief Secretary will be pleased to permit me to exercise also in this instance my usual discretionary power in expending the wages fund entrusted to my care, a privilege which all along and also under your own honored administration I have fully enjoyed. It appears Sir, really a principle of importance, that the means for detail expenditure (such as wages) should be at the discretionary command of the responsible administrative Officer, in order that he may be placed in the freest and very best position to effect the greatest possible advantage for the public benefit, without troubling his ministerial head. Under any circumstances I would most respectfully and most earnestly pray, that you will kindly releave this establishment from the burden, pressing on it by the constant and varied claims of the Assistantship, should even this release involve also the cessation of Mr Heyne's services, though you probably will not deem it necessary to adopt such an extreme measure simply for the purpose of annihilating any impression, as if the interest of one Officer was sacrificed for the benefit of an other.

Should you and your honorable colleagues feel graciously inclined to accede to my request of removing Mr Wilhelmi to an other department, and should not immediately a vacancy be available, he might continue engaged in the botanic museum , until a position adequate to his merits may become open for his reappointment. In granting this favor , the sources of very much troubles and difficulties, which I had to bear for a series of years, would be effectually and permanently cease to operate. Nor can I resist humbly and deeply to express my regret, that disturbances arising out of the anomalous position of a subordinate officer, should divert amidst endless work surrounding me my attention from the departmental and scientific objects, which ought constantly to occupy my undivided care; nor can I conceal it before my honorable chief, that the unfavorable reactions, which these disturbances are exercising on my health, impair that vigor, which is so essentially wanted to do full justice to my public positions.

I have yet solicitously to add, that you will spare me the humiliation of being as the responsible administrator of a Governments establishment under your own control subjected to a public enquiry, which always more or less carries the character of a degradation with it, a humiliation which in the fair sedulous and disinterested discharge of my multifarious and onerous duties I certainly never desired.

The honorable the Chief Secretary.

4

On 12 March 1866 McCulloch minuted: 'I trust that Dr Mueller will go into the whole question of the expenditure on the Gardens — I am quite sure that the amt annually expended may be considerably reduced and I am desirous to have such a plan submitted to me, before dealing with an officer in the dept. I will also thank Dr M to let me know whether he intends to avail of the leave of absence that he asked for some time ago — if so when.' See also M to J. McCulloch, 14 March 1866.

Wilhelmi retained his position until 31 December 1868, when he was retrenched as part of the wholesale reductions visited upon the Victorian Public Service at that time. He returned to Germany shortly afterwards.