Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne bot. Museum

6/8/73.

Sir

In reply to your minute of this date

1

The minute dated 6 August was written on M to J. Francis, 1 August 1873.

I have the honor as the responsible Administrator of my professional Department, who only can be fully aware of the requirements of its services, to point out for your favorable consideration:

1, that the expenditure, to be incurred at the rate of last month, will be within the means voted by Parliament for the services of my Department in 73/74,

2, that no Museum in the whole world is, beyond the clerical assistance, without an attende nt for outdoor engagements ;

3, that the outdoor duties can only be performed by one, who for many years had experience in that particular branch of the service;

4, that the daily duties of the attendent consist in clearing Museum consignments , attending at Gov. Offices, conveying letters and messages for despatch of departmental business, holding custody of the Museum during the hours of the absense of the Assistant, arranging for the transit of interchanges, cleaning the premises , procuring from town and elsewhere the articles required for the conservation of the collections , the experiments &c and all other public services of a messenger or some such functionary

5, that Dr. Hooker for the Kew Museum has a whole large staff of assistants and attendants, just like here the laboratory and all other public establishments;

6, that the disbursements have and will be made entirely within the wording of the estimates;

7, that in my letter of the 1. July (the first day, on which my service in the hon. the Chief Secretary's Department recommenced) I already had the honor to state, that for the proper continuation of the responsible work of the Department and the safety of the collections (commenced by me in 1840 and largely provided even since 1853 on my private expense) one assistant and one Attendant ( not two assistants ) would be employed;

8, that the local collecting of botanic specimens has always been carried on as a byework by the local staff of the Department;

9, that for travelling in distant lands a special collector was almost always formerly employed, till the reductions of the votes in 1871 and subsequent years rendered this no longer possible, and that for a special collector special means would be required, for which in a former letter I respectfully solicited at the rate of £150.- .- a year, and so also at that same rate for a laboratory operator .

Having brought, as I feel it my duty to do, these facts modestly before you, I trust, Sir, that for the sake of the honor of my service and the benefit of the colony and the advancement of knowledge you will not only allow me to carry out so small a matter of administrative duty as that concerning the disbursements out of the £300, voted by Parliament, at my discretion as the officer held responsible for the well working of my Department , but that you will also be so kind to supplement the means for my departmental services, the expenditure of the Museum branch only of Dr Hookers establishment at the bot. Garden of Kew being many thousand £ annually for the sole Museum purposes, such sum being always cheerfully voted by the British Parliament.

2

On 9 August 1873, Francis annotated the file: 'Dr Mueller must remember "life is short" & I do not purpose to enter upon lengthened correspondence on this & other subjects as the doctor manifestly tries to seduce me into ‑ He must do with one "assistant", & if on this matter I have further correspondence I will limit it to "telegraphic" length'.

On 13 August, M minuted: 'I simply considered it my duty to point respectfully out the requirements of my professional Department. I now submit the paysheet for the assistant only'. In response, on 15 August the Undersecretary, W. Odgers, minuted: 'The accounts have been passed to the Treasury. An account should be sent in also for the pay of the attendant during the time he was employed.'

The honorable the Chief Secretary