Document information
Physical location:
Unit 22, VPRS 1163/P1 inward correspondence, VA 1123 Premier, Public Record Office, Victoria. 83.03.19Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Graham Berry, 1883-03-19. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/83-03-19>, accessed April 21, 2025
1
This file was registered as Y83/2984 in the Chief Secretary's Department, its date
recorded as 19 March 1883. The letter and account have not been found but the annotated
cover was located in the Premier's records. See also M to Messrs Watson & Scull, 28 February 1883, and E. Regel to M, 14 June 1883.
2
approval.
3
On 29 March, the Under Secretary, T. Wilson, returned the account to M requesting:
'Will the Govt Botanist be good to give me a reference to the authority under which
this expenditure was incurred'. On 30 March, M replied: 'The Exhibition referred to
will be simply a horticultural Show of a week's duration though on a large scale,
to which I was asked to contribute as an honorary member of the Hortic. Society of
St Petersburg; similar international Exhibitions were held once there before, also
in Florence and some other places, when some fernstems and other vegetable Exhibits
were sent by me as a Departmental Conribution in the way of ordinary sendings for
interchanges, without then special authority being deemed requisite. So soon as I
hear of the safe arrival of this splendid specimen there, I will report the fact to
the hon. the Chief Secretary. Our bot. Museum here received a large lot of dried specimens
of Siberian plants from the Director of the bot. Garden of St Petersburg, under whose
chairmanship the forthcoming international hortic. Show is to be carried out; hence
the sending of this Giant Todea is made in reciprocity, but also, as a sort of advertisement
for future exports of these particular kinds of ferns, in the same manner, in which
the extensive export of Victorian Ferntrees has mainly originated through me.'
Berry commented: 'Authority should be obtained for expenditure of this nature it is
not a proper outlay from the incidental vote. It appears to me to be very irregular'.
Wilson informed M on 3 April that Berry had approved of the payment of the account
but directed his attention to Berry's minute about the irregularity of M's proceedings.
M replied on 4 April: 'As I am now aware of the views of the hon. the Chief Secretary
on unusual expenditures of this kind, which however very seldom occur, I shall not
fail to submit any similar case in first instance for the consideration of the Government.'