Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter written by E. Heyne on M's behalf.

Botan. Garden

March 7th 1868

Sir

Dr Mueller directs me to state the following in reply to your letter of the 4th inst.

2

E. FitzGibbon to M, 4 March 1868.

The promise made by him of placing a number of iron treeguards at the disposal of the City Council was made on the distinct understanding and after repeated verbal explanations to yourself and to other gentlemen connected with the Council, that the ground in question was to be enclosed and that for the future no cattle were to be admitted to the locality referred to, Dr Mueller considering it hopeless to grow trees even within treeguards unless efficient measures are taken for preventing the depasturing of cattle on the North bank of the river, for as soon as the trees have grown beyond their enclosures they will be mutilated and even sometimes destroyed by the cattle. Besides this as long as they remain all chances are taken away of raising Wattles, Sheoaks &c for shelter in the reserve. Dr Mueller desires also to take this opportunity of informing you, that but a few evenings ago he had counted himself not less than 31 head of cattle camped near the approaches of the bridge which have already been seriously damaged by the cattle running over, a fact which alone will show, that unless radical measures for their removal are taken no plantations can be made in the locality. For several years no horses have been kept in the Northern portion of the Botanic Gardens and Dr Mueller finds it rather singular that allusion should now be made to facts which transpired several years ago, at a time when no accomodation for keeping Governm. Horses on this side of the river existed and when Police horses were still depasturing in the adjoining reserve. Since then no horses have been kept there.

It will also be well to state that the keeper of the bathing houses and the tenant of the fruitstall in the reserve keep goats and as long as such concessions are made to them planting operations can not readily be carried on. For a long time past great inconvenience has arisen by numbers of cattle swimming round the fence which divides the City reserve from the Northern portion of the Botan. Garden, rendering thus even the plantation of the latter impossible. Dr Mueller desires you however especially to understand, that he will always be happy, as he has been hitherto, to aid the City Council in any improvements of their grounds, as he has shown by contributing again last year 200 Chilian and 3000 other pines and for years past large numbers of rare trees by the thousand including numbers of Californian and Himalayan Pines, and that also for the future he will continue to do so and he will also place the treeguards at your disposal whenever the conditions of this loan are thus far fulfilled.

Dr Mueller desires further to draw the attention of the City Council to the fact that milk produced in much frequented places like parks, where impurities so readily accumulate, is in the highest degree unwholesome and that doubtless many of the cases of diseases with cyst formations which unfortunately often prove fatal, are traceable to impure food including impure milk, and consequently in large cities the depasturing of milk cows in close vicinity is no longer tolerated and arrangements are made to procure a wholesome milk by means of railways from distances free from City-traffic. Dr Mueller desires further to submit, that, having considered the correspondence referring to this matter as not official, he has not kept records of his letters and in the haste of writing the letter dated January 11th to which you refer, he may not have specially mentioned again the conditions under which the loan of the treeguards was to be made, though it will be in the recollection of yourself and the other gentlemen with whom he conversed on the subject, that he made it always conditional upon arrangements being made for laying out walks, fixing seats and otherwise improving at least that portion of the Yarra-Park lying South of the Railway. In regard to the willows Dr Mueller desires to observe that in 2 different years he has placed many thousand young willows on the North Bank of the River, but that chiefly on account of the admittance of cattle into the Park, the majority of these trees is now destroyed, while had it been otherwise the still dismal banks of the river might have been fringed by this time with dense willows, rendering thus the chances of accidents by drowning lessened as well as the likelyhood of their being washed away by any succeeding flood He regrets that so beautiful a city as Melbourne which can be proud of the excellence of its municipal works should be allowed to have after 30 years of the existence of the Colony its municipal Parklands in the closest vicinity sacrificed to the interests of cow-keeping and thus continue to bear such an unfavorable contrast to the beautiful city itself.

I have the honor to be

E. G. Fitzgibbon Esq

Town Clerk of Melbourne