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reiterated his appeal to the Government to take action before it was too
late, and advised it of the latest moves in smallpox prevention in the
other Australian colonies and overseas . Each year, his disappointment ,
cynicism and anger at the irrespons ibility and ineptitude of the Tasmanian
Government grew .
On May 1, 1871, he wrote:
Contrast the costly and vigorous steps taken to erradicate
the 'scab ' from the sheep in Tasmania, with the withdrawal of
all pecuniary assistance towards protecting the human
inhabitants of the colony from the danger of smallpox, and
the utterly inefficient measures adopted to maintain a constant
supply of fresh vaccine lymph . 29
At last, in June 1873, after eight years of persistent appeals
to the Legislature by Hall, Attorney General W.R. Giblin introduced into
the House of Assembly the draft of a Bill to amend the long-proved useless
Compulsory Vaccination Act of 1853 .
Its introduction, after so long, was
greeted with satisfaction by most medi cal practitioners , some of whom,
however, namely Hall, Agnew, Smart , Edwards , Bright and Carns ,pointed out
by "Petition to Parliament" alterations which should be made in Committee
to make the measure an. efficient one for the perfect protection of the
community. 3 ° Hall, in fact, was surprised during the debates at the
paucity of knowledge on the subject displayed by most memb ers of the Hous e,
and at their obj ections .
On July 29, 1873, he examined these in the
Mercury , proving that more than 40,000 of Tasmania's population were
unvaccinated, and restating his conviction that he could not conscientiously
advocate anything less than a complete provision for the protection of the
present as wel l as the future inhabitants of the island .
Nonetheless , he was disappointed once again;
of .Ministry and the Bill lapsed.
there was a change
Undaunted, in the recess of Parliament
intervening before its sittings in 1874 , he sought an interview with Giblin
to briṇg the subject once more to his attention, and lent him several books
of the latest and highest authority.
As it had been asserted in
Parliament that any scheme of vaccination would cost several thous ands of
pounds per annum, Hall presented Giblin with an "elaborate and carefully
calculated scheme" which showed that all the children annually born in the
island could be vaccinated, and a constant supply of carefully selected
vaccine lymph maintained for a cost not exceeding one thousand pounds .
On his next interview \'>'ith Giblin, many weeks later ,he was referred to
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Mercury, May 2, 1871.
30 H.A.P. 1873/78.
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