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303
£19 .10.11 in 1866. 13 In its quest for a scapegoat on which to pin its
demands for retrenchment , as it had done with respect to Vaccination,
the Mercury , under its editor J. Allen, furiously attacked Coverdale
and his figures in a long succession of leading articles in which it
demanded a sub stantial decrease in expenditure and an immediate Commi ssion
of Enqu.iry into the organization of the institution.
Coverdale, who
could see little at fault in the Schools under present conditions , and
certainly no way in which he could further cut costs without unpardonab le
damage to the children , attempted in his report for 1866 to justify the
figures by comparing the expenditure at the Queen 's Orphan Asylum with
that of other kindred institutions in Australia and in England, · including
the Ranmick Asylum in Sydney .
His well-intentioned act immediately
brought upon himself the ire of its Superintendent , May , formerly of the
Convict Department in Tasmania and an adversary of Hall's in the convict
dispute in 1855 . Possibly old sores were being aroused; whether true
or not, May , in a communication
on April 29 , 1867 , to the Mercury wh ich
t
upheld his case for reasons of its own , compared the cost per head of
the two institutions in detail, refuting the figures give by Coverdale.
In 1865 Q. Asylum Hobart £19.13.0 1 /2 Randwick £14.0.0
In 1866 Q. Asylum Hobart £19 .10.11 Randwick £15 .16.9
a difference in favour of Randwick of
in 1865 £5 .13.0 1 / 2
in 1866 £4 .4.2
Moreover, he accused Coverdale of discourtesy , unprofessionalism and
distortion of fact.
Nonplussed, Coverdale, who was described by the
Tasmanian Times as "certainly not . happy with his pen" , 14 wrote a short ,
ineffective letter in disagreement \hich did little to stem the tide of
highly critical condemnation of his own management and the laudations
showered, especially by the Mercury , on May .
Hall, for his part , no matter what he thought about Coverdale 's
knowledge of dietetics , was unable to stand by and see an injustice of this
kind done, especially when he was fully acquainted statistically with the
facts .
He , therefore , inserted in his Health Report to the Royal Society
for May 1867 , a comparison of the mortality rates between the two
institutions to enab le the expenditure of each to be judged in accordnce
with the effects on the death rate , the only real standard of comp ari son .
When his report was read by the Secretary of the Royal Society , some
13
Ibid.
14 Tasmanian Times , August 8, 1867.