THE LATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. ZH 
Excellency a short time before he took his departure from 
the colony. Previous to the arrival of Sir George Gipps, the 
new Governor, application was made to Mr. Cunningham by 
the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel Snodgrass, that he would 
prepare and furnish a report of the state of the garden, and 
of the convicts that were employed on it, to lay before the 
expected Governor on his arrival. This request Mr. Cun- 
ningham complied with; and with it closed bis connexion 
with the Botanie Garden at Sydney.* 
It is much to be regretted that Mr. Cunningham, contrary 
to the wishes of many of his friends, ever accepted the situation 
of Colonial Botanist; for when he left England in October, 
1836, he had not the most remote idea of many of the duties 
he was called upon to perform, as, for instance, the superin- 
tendence of convicts, and the raising of vegetables and fruit, 
&c. (a rather novel service for a practical botanist); conse- 
quently the harass and annoyance he suffered at finding him- 
self called upon to fulfil duties of a most disagreeable nature, 
preyed considerably on his mind; and, in addition to this, 
bis constitution was tco debilitated to withstand unscathed 
the dry scorching breezes of New South Wales, which, at the 
. period of his resignation, swept over Sydney from the north- 
west a perfect furnace-blast, the thermometer at times being 
959. These, together, eventually produced indisposition, of 
which he writes—“ The result has been general debility, a 
* The following extract from the Sydney Herald, Jan. 29, 1838, is one of 
the Gar 
Colonists to the fact, that a kitchen-garden, nnder the pretence of being a Bo- 
tanic Garden, is es des in Sydney at an expense of from 8007. to 1,0007. 
We 
p o*year. . scarcely ever walk through this garden without seeing 
|. Some servant, with a basket, carrying off vegetables or fruit'for Mrs. This, or 
_ Mrs. That—the wife of some official. Can't these people go to market and 
. purchase dan supplies as emm deg do, instead of poaching op 
What is really public property? . riously, we do pe that such an 
impudent job ought to be done away with, eg is, in fact, so 
,t 
S Mr. Cunningham would no longer consent to remain a mere dicor dd offi- 
2 cial cabbages and turneps, and accordingly he has resigned the management of 
the Botanic Garden in disgust.” 
