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95.05.18aPreferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Henry Norman, 1895-05-18 [95.05.18a]. 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/1890-6/1895/95-05-18a-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026
1
Letter not found. For the text given here, see
Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch)
, vols12/13 (March 1896), pp. 10-11 (B96.14.01). The text is appended to a report
of the Council Meeting of the Victorian Branch held on 18 May 1895, at which it was
agreed to present Norman with an address of welcome to Victoria. The report continues:
‘The President, accompanied by Messrs. Henry Gyles Turner, F.R.G.S., G. S. Griffiths,
Rev. W. Potter, and the Hon. Secretary, subsequently waited upon Sir Henry Norman,
at Menzies’ Hotel, and presented the following address:--‘.
To His Excellency
General Sir Henry Norman, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., C.I.E., F.R.G.S., Etc.
(Governor of Queensland).
The vivid interest evinced by Your Excellency in the progress of Geographic efforts
throughout Her Majesty’s Australian Dominions prompts the Victorian Council of the
Royal Geographical Society of Australasia to offer you, on behalf of its Members,
our homage, while Your Excellency honours this colony with a visit.
During the very long and highly distinguished career, including your valorous military
services in India, the brilliant privilege of being for a series of years an aide-de-camp
of our Gracious Sovereign, the elevated position held by Your Excellency in the Council
of the Indian Empire, and the vice-regal dignity as the Queen’s representative in
two great colonies, entitle you to expressions of the greatest admiration.
We feel, therefore, that it would be a shortcoming on our part, as Geographers, if
we missed this opportunity—perhaps the last which may present itself—to approach Your
Excellency personally in recognising the claims which you will ever have on the gratitude
of all British subjects throughout Her Majesty’s empire.
The pleasure of sharing in these sentiments is heightened by our being conscious of
the active participation which Your Excellency favoured Geographic work—even amidst
your very onerous and responsible State duties—wherever you were placed; and we all
the more empasize this in Australia on account of the enthusiastic participation bestowed
by Your Excellency at the meetings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement
of Science in Tasmania and Queensland.
In placing these, our sentiments, on record, we would desire to add a fervent hope
that you may long be spared by Divine Providence to continue your glorious engagements
for promoting the greatness of the British Empire, and also for the continued happiness
within the circle of your family during a long serene evening of life.
We remain,
Your Excellency’s most obedient humble Servants,
Ferd von Mueller, President.
A. C. Macdonald, Hon. Sec.