Document information

Physical location:

No.3861, pp. 1493-4, unit 104, VPRS 1187/P, outward registered correspondence, VA 475 Chief Secretary's Department, Public Record Office of Victoria. 94.10.13

Preferred Citation:

Charles Topp to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1894-10-13. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1890-6/1894/94-10-13-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Document is a circular (p. 1493) sent by the Under Treasurer to the heads of 29 agencies including the Chief Secretary's Office, whence copies were sent to sub-departments within that Department, including to the Government Botanist.
The Treasury
Melbourne 13th October 1894.
Sir,
I am directed to request that you will be so good to furnish revised estimate of expenditure for the year 1894/5 in the department of the Honorable the Chief Secretary.
As regards salaries and wages the Estimate is to be based upon the existing law 87 Vict No 1313.
The contingencies should be reduced wherever practicable but as there will be no Additional Estimates it is necessary that provision be now made for what will be absolutely required during the financial year.
I am however to urge that the strictest economy should be maintained and that a careful scrutiny of every item be exercised.
It will be convenient that the revised amounts be neatly written in the Estimates which were submitted last session in such a manner, that they can be easily set up by the printer.
2
Estimates had been prepared by the administration of James Patterson and ordered to be printed 31 July 1894 (Parliamentary papers, 1894, no. B 12), but he lost office on 27 September 1894, George Turner's administration succeeding him. Turner held both Premier and Treasurer posts.
I am to add that Mr Turner will be glad to receive the document not later than the 20th instant.
I have &c
H. F. Eaton
Under Treasurer
To the [...]
3
Space left empty for title of head of sub-department within the Chief Secretary's Department.
For early attention so far as relates to his Branch of this Department. It is requested that the Estimates may reach this office not later than 17th inst.
4
M's reply has not been found, presumably because if any were made they were made on the printed version of the Patterson estimates. The Turner estimates for 1894/95, ordered to be printed on 31 October 1894 (Parliamentary paper 1894/95 no, B 4) include, as did the Patterson proposals, only one staff member in the Clerical Division, a reduction of £188 compared to the previous year. Two of the three herbarium assistants had increments, resulting in an increase in that head of £34. As in the previous year there was no provision for operating expenses, expenses which M had undertaken to pay from his own income (see M to A. McLean, 7 June 1892, and M to T. Wilson, 29 September 1893 (in this edition as 93-09-29a)). The reduction in M's salary from £712 to £680 in the earlier estimates printed before Patterson lost office was not made in these estimates, nor was the reduction in them of £3 in the salary of the second herbarium assistant. The reduction in Clerical Divison staff is a consequence of the transfer of Gerhard Renner to the Office of the Government Statist (see T. Wilson to M, 27 February 1894 (in this edition as 94-02-27a), confirmed as permanent in C. Topp to M, 23 July 1894 (in this edition as 94-07-17a).
Charles Topp
13th October 1894