Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from Gippsland times, 5 August 1865, p. 3 (B65.08.06). It is introduced by 'We have received the following communication from Dr. Mueller, with respect to the exploration party now out in search of Dr. Leichardt [i.e. Leichhardt]'.

Sir,—

It was through an inadvertence on my part that the receipt and public acknowledgement of a collection made towards the Leichardt fund, at Sale, by my generous friend, Isaac Buchanan, Esq., of Lake Wellington, escaped my attention, an oversight which I admit as early as I became cognisant of it, especially as the dignified president of the ladies, delegated to the Leichardt Committee, was induced through my erroneous statement, to observe

2

Comment not found.

that the only subscription received from Gippsland was from the hand of our late noble-hearted friend, Angus M'Millan, Esq.,

3

McMillan died in May as a result of an accident in which one of his packhorses rolled on him (ADB).

and to thus appeal through you to the sympathies of the residents in your district for the furtherance of the ladies' philanthropic enterprise. Nevertheless, it must be conceived, that the support hitherto received for the ladies' nationally important movement from so extensive and so flourishing a country as Gippsland, has, in comparison to that from other parts of Australia, been limited in the extreme. This arises, I feel convinced, not from an absence of feeling or from a want of appropriation of a national duty, but from the absence of any well constituted organisation to undertake the some what toilsome task of gathering contributions. In days past — in days which I shall ever cherish in my remembrance — I have experienced enough of the universal liberality of the inhabitants of your province as for a moment to doubt that the settlers of Gippsland intended to exclude themselves from aiding an enterprise, which has set not merely all Australia in commotion, but which also has excited active compassion in other parts of the globe. Allow me, then, Mr. Editor, to suggest that a committee of ladies should be formed in Gippsland to promote, by receiving contributions, the final inquiry into the fate of the great explorer. The aim of such local committee might be readily aided by some festival, in which even the least prosperous of your community might share, in order to afford them an opportunity to bear a mite, ever so small, as an individual gift, but handsome in the accumulative, towards the probably lengthy and costly work of almost cosmopolitan humanity, in which the ladies are now engaged.

Botanic Gardens, 1st August, 1865.