Ferdinand von Mueller

In August 1871, the Department of Industrial and Reformatory Schools invoiced the Botanic Garden for an amount of £77.5.- for labour of boys from the Industrial Schools in the Garden. M promptly returned the account to the Inspector of Industrial Schools, G. Duncan, for further information, stating that no provision had been made in the Estimates for his department for such a payment; see M to G. Duncan, 29 August 1871 (in this edition as 71-08-29a). On 31 August, Duncan referred the matter to the Chief Secretary, arguing that 'some arrangement should be made by which the department can have credit given to it for the labor expended on account of other departments'. In passing the file to the Chief Secretary, the Under Secretary, W. Odgers, noted: 'If the Industrial Schools Dept. is to be paid in cash for the labor of the boys employed in the Botanic Gardens, the wages vote of the latter must be correspondingly increased'. In reply, Duffy minuted on 4 October: 'Is there any difficulty in giving the Industrial Schools credit for so much money as the work done represents (in their annual statement) without any actual cash payments?'.

M's letter was referred on 11 October 1871 to the Inspector of Industrial Schools for his opinion. He replied on 12 October agreeing to what was proposed and suggesting a procedure for implementing it that was accepted and reported to M in W. Odgers to M, 23 October 1871.