Ferdinand von Mueller

Bot Gard. 20/3/71.

Allow me to ask dear Mr Fitzgibbon, whether it would be possible to obtain a gang of short-sentence prisoners for some earthwork near the City bridge. This is the dry season yet, when I might deepen the lagoon there with a view of converting a portion of it into a bathing place. Facilities exist for bringing fresh water into the lagoon by a ditch while egress could be given by an other ditch, and close planting be effected in May, irrespective of embellishment. It would be a great boon to the citizens, the place being so accessible.

Perhaps the difficulty exists in this way, that I ask aid from the Corporation for Government's Ground. I have not communicated yet on the subject with my Ministerial Chief, as it is necessary that I should hear first your view. Perhaps you will be so friendly to consult in first instance privately with his Worship the Mayor.

If the proposition can be at all entertained, the prisoners would have to take their midday meal on the ground, and they might come on the passage below the railway and across the branch ferry, thus not being marched over the bridge.