Ferdinand von Mueller

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Letter not found. The text given here was published under the headline 'Dr. von Mueller and his services', Argus, 10 November 1869, p 7.

Sir,—

It has been represented to me that the public are ignorant of the circumstances referred to in my letter of Friday last,

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W. Lockhart Morton to the Editor of the Argus, 5 November 1869 (in this edition as M69-11-04).

respecting the treatment of Dr. Von Mueller. The fact is, that the public have been misled by the statements made in the Assembly. It was made to appear that the change then about to be effected had for one of its objects the relief of Dr. Mueller. It was represented that now Dr. Mueller would be allowed proper leisure to follow his scientific labours, being relieved from the overburden of his directorship of the gardens.

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In a statement made in response to a question in the Legislative Assembly on 27 October 1869, the Minister of Lands said that he intended to 'place Mr. Ferguson at the head of the staff [of the Botanic Gardens]. By this arrangement, Dr. Von Mueller would be relieved of much of the drudgery of the department, and be left more at ease in the scientific branch' ('Inspection of Forests', Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, Session 1869, vol. 9, p. 2063). The Minister's statement was reported in the Argus, with the introductory comment 'The Minister of Lands has announced his intention of commencing a reform which, it is to be hoped, he will carry out with all possible speed.' In its report the Argus stated, as if it were part of the Ministers statement, 'Dr. von Mueller also has complained of being overworked, and it was therefore proposed …' (Argus, 28 October 1869, p. 5). No reference to M’s complaining of overwork is included in the Parliamentary debates report.

There are some statements more plausible than straightforward, and this is one. If it had been intended that Dr. Mueller should consent to the proposed arrangement, he would have been consulted; if it had been designed that he and the person succeeding him should act harmoniously.

It is impossible that Dr. Mueller, if he has any spirit at all, can continue to act as Government botanist if he ceases to be director. It is as Government botanist and director that he has collected plants, shrubs, and trees from all Australia, and every other part of the world, and it is he who has given them their proper scientific names, and has given new names to the nameless. There are perhaps only two other men in the world who could have done this, and where is the gratitude or the honour of the country that would now hand over all his works to a mere landscape gardener? The cry is raised that the public want flowers, and in the same breath the Fitzroy-gardens are extolled. Now, the Fitzroy-gardens are very beautiful, but are they rendered so by flowers? No; their beauty is due to the luxuriance of the trees and groves. The vegetation is like that of a tropical climate. Yan Yean and sewage waters have done it. Yet, like the gourd of Jonah,

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Jonah, chapter 4, verses 6 and 7: ‘And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.’

the trees will decay as quickly as they have grown. The first principles of irrigation are ignored. 'There is no underground drainage, and as soon as the sewage water has saturated the soil, all but the surface roots will perish, and the trees will die or be rooted up by the winds. But let it be supposed that flowers are chiefly wanted. Is the propagation of hybrid roses and other curiosities the chief end of botanical gardens? If this is so, abolish the name, and call them flower-gardens or tea-gardens for ever, or till a more sensible race arise to appreciate the exalted designs which botanical gardens are intended to accomplish.

I apprehend that such designs are as follow

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follows?

— To bring together from the whole world every form of vegetable life, that the thoughtful may study and admire their wondrous beauty and diversity; that the enterprising may learn what plants or trees in any way useful to man may be profitably and successfully cultivated; that the student of botany may have on opportunity of seeing and identifying the whole of the vegetable world; and that all classes and all ages may see and enjoy, each according to the taste, the intelligence, or the soul that is in him, whatever the scene presents to his senses. If such are the objects of having botanical gardens, who in the whole southern hemisphere is so fit as Dr. Mueller to be director of ours? But if hybrid roses and other monstrous forms of vegetation are demanded by colonial insipidity, then let a mere florist take the place of the man of science, and the gardens and the population will be alike, and will agree. Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide will unite in purchasing many of the rare plants that will have to be rooted out to make room for the hybrids. The labels now in use might be stored till better times, or they might be employed unaltered as labels for the hybrids; and when any exchanges of plants or seeds come from Russia or elsewhere, if the name can be made out they might be returned with the intimation that the so-called beauties of creation are not wanted here, and that unless hybrids are sent us by foreigners we will turn our backs upon them as persons without taste and beneath our consideration.

The position of no scientific man in the service of the state can be certain in this colony till each has a right to give, as occasion requires, from 25 to 50 votes at elections. Yesterday a Selwyn was undermined and upset because he was too honest a man to puff the pet schemes of political colliers.

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Earlier in 1869, the Government abruptly terminated the Geological Survey of Victoria and its director, A. R. C. Selwyn, left the colony to become director of the Geological Survey of Canada.

He is now in a new field as Government geologist in Canada.

The time is evidently coming when none but political professors will be wanted or tolerated, and if Her Majesty the Queen does not make them all knights, her position will be unsafe. The wisest of men once said, "When goods increase those that eat them multiply."

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Ecclesiastes 5: 11.

The pastures of the country are becoming covered with thistles, and the results are everyday becoming more apparent. —