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Vaccination in Tasmania", later referred to by Milroy as Hal l's Bill, 15
\hich \'las based, as far as it could be app lied to Tasmani a, on the Scotch
Act that made it penal to receive children into schools and servants into
fami lies if they were not vaccinat ed.
After its second reading in the
Council on August 7, the bill was attacked violently by the Mercury, no\'/
extremely Anti -Whyte in its sympathies and destructive in its criticism;
it declared the alarm in 1863 was groundless, and there was no need for
the Vaccination Bill which was "an elaborate piece of cumbrous machinery
spread over t\enty-eight draggling, ponderous clausesu ;
moreover, it
repeated its accusation that the Whyte Government \'las bringing in the Bill
to provide berths for mere hangers-on \'lho had no claim to consideration.
Berths were wanted in the first place for one of their medical
friends in Hobart Tmm, and another in Launceston , and for these
t\'lo gentlemen they have placed the sum of £300 on the estimates .
They must no\'1 appoint pub lic vaccinators in every district in
the colony and pay these 5/- for every certified case - the cost
would be £600 to £700 a year. 16
The paper contended that nothing more was required than a simple enactment
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by which the General Hospitals at Hobart To\'ln, Launceston and Campb ell Town
could do all that Has necessary.
On August 21 it repeated that the Bill
\'las intended to legalize the perpetration of a monstrous job, and described
Hal l's Vaccination Report for 1864 as
ab ounding \'lith extracts from fancy reports of fancy boards and
fancy societies . 1 7
Its opinion was upheld by a private letter signed "Citizen" : in 1864 ,
£1,062.1.8 \'las paid to the Medical Profession from general revenue for
gratuitous vaccination;
man doctors being supported by the pub lic purs e:
in Hobarton 1 s populatio of 20,000 there were too
Turnley at the Hobart
Hospital ; Benson, Port Officer; Coverdale, the Orphan School ; and Hall,
the Vaccination Officer. 1 8
Although the Vaccination Bill passed the
Legislative Council , on September 8, 1865, much to Hall's disappointment,
it was rejected by the House of Assemb ly by nine votes to eight.
The Whyte Government 's Parliamentary Estimates provided for
Hal l's and Maddox 's appointments as Pub lic Vaccinators to the end of the
•
year 1866.
In his report for 1865 Hall noted that, owing to the want of
15
16
1 7
1 8
Hall Papers - Letter from Milroy to Hall, March 29, 1866.
Mercury, August 5, 1865 .
Mercury , August 21, 1865 .
Mercury, September 4, 1865 .
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