Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne bot Garden

12/5/73.

Sir

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th,

1

Letter not found. This is a response to the minute on M to J. Casey, 7 May 1873 (in this edition as 73-05-07a).

which I got late on Saturday evening, and beg in reply respectfully to inform you, that I have already communicated to the Italian Consul your wish, that any plants &c, which the Italian Officers might require should be supplied by me, if available here, on behalf of the Government. I shall also endeavour to see the Commandant of the Frigate personally on the subject, but do not anticipate that anything more is wished beyond the few seeds, for which two of the Officers asked. I must have been entirely misunderstood by yourself in reference to their request. I did not recommend the small supply as an unsolicited one, nor do I find as a rule the recipients abroad ungrateful, as very often we receive valuable seeds in return

In reference to the remark made by me, that these visiting warships "spend their country's money in our port" (and that to the extent of several thousand £ on each occasion) I beg respectfully to draw attention to the very wide difference between the friendly visit of a foreign Government's Ship, coming not for any monetary gain, and a merchants ship coming for lucrative commercial profits.

The Director of the botanic Garden learnt first also through the newspapers, that the Frigate brought a case of plants from his Excellency the Governor of South Africa, and it has only been landed towards the end of last week, therefore a few days ago. It has been the wish of successive Ministers of the Department, that every facility for information should be afforded to the Gentlemen of the newspapers, who from time to time visit the bot. Garden, and with the approval of all former Ministerial Chiefs the donations received have thus periodically been acknowledged, just as is done at short intervals in the Geelong papers and elsewhere in regard to the local contributions obtained at the public Gardens in any part of our colony.

The honorable the Minister of the Lands Department.