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Of thi s body the Mercury was later to write on August 13
with some disgust:
In the formation of such commissions there is always
this danger that the interested element will preponderate,
thus giving, or securing a particular bias to suit the
parties interested. In no case has this been more
marked than in the recent enquiry into the state of the
Queen' s Orphan Schools; Hygienic and Dietetic - who
composed the commission ? - not of men, known to the
public for their moral worth and integrity, but of
those subservient to, or politically dependent upon ,
one of the body, and upon whom the whole gravamen of
Hall's charges appeared to rest ....
In spite of his disapproval Hall decided to gjve evidence, fearful that
any refusal to cooperate might lead to Jfurther postponement , or an
insufficiency of the necessary reforms .
The Board of Enquiry opened
its investigations in the Colonial-Secretary 's office on May 9, 1859 ,
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its purpose to enquire into the supp ly and preparation of food,
ventilation, drainage and water supply, accommodation, the state of
repair, organization, and the direction of the establishment and the
management of the children .
Under these circumstances it was hardly likely that the Board
would receive Hall 's evidence in an amicable state of mind. Bedford ,
a member of Parliament and an extremely busy man , was becoming
progre ssively irritated by the whole affair .
In a letter to the
Comptroller-General on April 30 , in which he reiterated his previous
denials of any mismanagement, he could not refrain from expressing his
displeasure at the Government 's latest attitude.
I cannot conclude this letter without expressing a hope that
a fearless , discharge of duty, and incurring responsibility
when the Government required it at my hands , is not to be
met by the Government encouraging slanderous attacks upon
the manner in which the Medical Duties have been discharged
at the Queen 's Orphan Schools. If the imputations in
Mr Hall's attacks upon this institution (which he has
continued for some time) were true , it was the duty of the
Government long ago to have set the matter right ; if not
correct, a repetition of such attacks should not subject me
to the trouble of answering them .
According to the Comptroller-General, the Orphan Schools were regularly
visited by the successive Medical Officers of the military service who
filled the situation of Principal Medical Officer for the convict
establishments in the colony, and not once had they suggested that the
scale of diet authorized for the chi ldren was inadequate.
Government nor Bedford, as they sought in their bewilderment and
Neither the
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