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at its Twentieth Annual Meeting at which both the Mayor and
Governor A.A. Weld praised his work and that of other long standing
members of the Society.
During twenty years this society had done great good, and if
he were put in the position of Mr Witt , or Mr Hull, or Dr Hall,
Mr Mather or Mr Crouch , he should congratulate himself, for
if they had done no other good in their lives they might go to
their graves feeling that they had done their duty and conferred
a great benefit on the colony . l9
By an arrangement made with the Government on February 24 , 1880, the
Benevolent Society took over on March l the administration of outdoor
relief to paupers , the care of the boarding-out of children and the
admission of infirm and poor persons to the Invalid Depots .
With the
Government 's approval , therefore, Hall resigned as Executive Chairman to
become the Society 's secretary and the disburser of the Government 's
grant for charitable aid, a pos ition which he held until his death .
failing fast :
Society;
By early 1881, however, it was evident that Hall's strength was
on June 2 he attended his last meeting of the Benevolent
two days later he published his last Health Report in the
Mercury which closed its long association with him with a graceful
compliment .
Our informant is our worthy Health Officer of the City
of Hobart, Dr E. Swarbreck Hall, a gentleman who has for
years watched the operations of the clerk of the Weather
with as much diligence and pertinacity as he has regarded the
state of the Public Health, with a fierce opposition to all
that would be likely to prejudice the sound sanitary condition
of the community, and a wise fostering and advocacy of any
modern improvement the introduction of which would be likely
to have a beneficial effect . 2 D
Though the finale was naturally a sorrowful one for his fami ly
and his many friends , it was also a grand one , befitting the great
Tasmanian he was .
On June 8, on the occasion of his Golden Wedding with
his wife, Mary, though he was very weak and feeb le, the Mayor and citizens
of Hobart Town presented him at his home at 58 Campb ell Street with an
illuminated address and a purse of £142 .10.0 in recognition of his public
services and his private worth . In the presence of his wife , son and
five daughters , Hall gave a brief resume of his life and , overcome by
emotion, thanked the people of Hobart Town , saying that in all his life
he had lived by the grand old English axiom
"Woe Betide, for the Right".2 1
1 9
20
21
Mercury, Jan . 27, 1880 .
Mercury, June 4, 1881 .
Mercury, June 9, 1881 . The Catholic Standard . Julv 1881.