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Tasmanian institution they found neglect , trucu lence , partizanship and
their consequences ;
in the other, attent ion, benevolence and cordiality.
It needs no philosopher to forecast the different results
to society when we who manage, or mismanage , these things
have left the scene and a new generation has sprung up to
fill our places .
After referring exp licitly to Hal l's description of the Orphans ' ab lutions
- a remnant of the old convict regime - the editors appealed to the new
Board of Management for a freer, more humane mode of treatment ;
.
. I
those
inelastic laws hitherto rigidly applied to who le groups of children should
be softened and rendered more applicable to classes and even individual
cases . "These", said the Editors, "were the demands of the time" .
Diet scale were a thing of the past ;
of deaths , diets and dormitories
in public charitable institutions , the Australian Medical Journal had
heard enough .
We trust that we shall never see Dr Swarbreck Hall 's name
again attached to any communication on the Orphan Asylum,
except to one of unmixed praise, which we are certain he
would pen with the sincerest pleasure.
To Bedford and his supporters , the Australian Medical Journal issued its
final verdi ct:
Nor can we ourselves omit offering both to him , Hall and
to the new Board, our grateful recognition of services
which in six months have reduced the mortality of these
helpless creatures from eight to two per cent , compared
with the corresponding simasters of former years .
Yet , important though it was , the Orphan Schools Affair was
only symptomatic of the society in which it occurred: the same "neglect ,
truculence and partizanship" which formerly characterized the management
of the Asylum were to be found firmly entrenched in other bodies and
institutions in Hobarton ;
moreover, the personal contest between Hall and
Bedford merely exemp lified in a high degree a conflict which existed
between social groupings as well.
The decaying remnants of the old
convict regime lingered over-long for the welfare of the people, longer
than in other parts of Australia, and could not be dislodged;
Hal l, Miller and Wedge were impatient to see them gone forever .
men like
In the
years 1855-60 , which saw the comp lete dismemberment of the convict system,
the atmosphere of continual dissension, hostility, disparagement and
denunciation, firmly moulded the Hobarton community into two distinct
social groupings , the progressive democrats and the conservatives .
this , Miller in the political field, Hal l in the health and welfare area,
were , no doub t, greatly responsib le;
but they had little choice if
Tasmania, already far behind, were to keep pace with the rest of the
world.
For