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this island ch osen the Sanitarium for India, and thus
retaining in a more desirable form the materi al advantages
to this colony, of the large pecuniary expenditure of the
Imperial treasury, lost to us by the rejection of the Convict
system, was thrown away by the blundering and worthless
'Report' which emanated from the Commissioners and disgraced
us so at home and in India is well known.
It cannot be said that nothing has ever occurred in Tasmania
in connection with Quarantine that afforded data for expatiating
on the climatic and other advantages of this favoured island.
The visits of the afflicted French discovery ships 'Astrolabe'
and 'Le Zelee' , the 'Persian' etc. , the first introduction and
subs equent history of the whooping cough , scarlet fever ,
measles etc. would have supp lied to a competent sanitarian ,
patriotically earnest for something beyond mere selfish
interests , a theme which could have served to exalt the
character for salubrity of this island to the high position
I ascribed to it in a paper furnished to the Statistical Society
which con cluded in the fol lowing words : 'I think I am now
justified in reiterating, as an established fact, the statement
I have in various portions of my paper expressed, in effect ,
that few countries in the world whose medico-vital statistics
have been pub lished, can equal this beautiful isle of the South
Seas - Young Tasmania - as an ab ode where the human race may
dwell comfortab ly, healthily, and to a ripe old age, without
deteriorating either physically or morally from the elevated
position their British progenitors held among the nations of
the earth .'
The Quarantine 'health officer' at Sydney , Dr Alleyne has
supp lied data highly commended by the Secretary to the Quarantine
Committee. In fact the abstract for New South Wales is second
to none for valuable information. But, alas for Tasmania !
It is to be hoped that some of our legislators - irrespective
of all party or personal considerations - will cal l for all the
correspondence on this subject between the Imperial and
Tasmanian authorities; and when that item in the 'estimates '
which is embodied under 'health officers ' comes to be voted, wi ll
demand from the Government some explanation on this matter.
It may not yet be forgotten how neglectful the Government here
was in failing to supply the representative for Tasmania to the
great International Statistical Congress held in London in 1860,
with information useful to the interests of this colony . Not so
did the neighbouring governments doze in their bureaus .
In Hobart Town the post of Quarantine Health Officer for the
last twenty years or so, has been monopolized by one or two
pluralists who ought to be compe lled to give some account of
their stewardship, some useful details of the work they have
done for the pay they have received, such as is exacted from their
compeers in other colonies . No sinecurists and monopo lists of
the let-alone, how not to do it, old world school, ought to be
tolerated in a colony whose daring motto is 'Advance' and in an
age which proclaims the principle of action to be 'Progress
Excelsior '". 9
Mercury, January 7, 1862.
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