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26
capable of·. affordi_ng efficient assistance on all occasions , preferably
J. Grant of the Launceston Hospital. On August 2 Schaw described the
feeli.ngs of most of the nine hundred people of Bothwell :
I have to express th general opinion of the District in their
wishes that your appointment of his successor may be a steady
married man as there are several large families that will only
emp loy such a gentleman and without the
it
would not be ·an obj ect worthy the attention of any Practitioner.
Dr Durie, now District Assistant Srgeon at Bighton , and the first to
acquaint Arthur of De Little's accident , was one of the seventeen doctors
who applied for the appointii}ent at Bothwel l'·
gi vi_ng as his reason facts
which throw some light on the situation in Bighton at the time:
I have served also as District Medical Officer at Avoca where
there was scarcely any practice and latterly at Brighton, equally
as undesirable for a medical practitioner, on account of the
reluctance of the inhabitants to pay a medical man, Brighton
·
not being preferable to Avoca.7
On August 1, Hall , too , waited upon the Governor to ask personally for the
appointment .
However, altho_ugh his application was considered very
favourably , Arthur wrote to Governor J. Franklin on August 15 , 1838 :
. • . . though with every desire to forward and favour the
applicat'ion for an appointment by Mr Hall of Brighton, I yet
conceive it but just that his should give way to those of
others on this occasion - but will be happy on the next
opportunity offering to recommend it for favourab le
consideration ... :
Thus , in spite of the fact that Arthur did not wish to encouage the
spirit of partisanship expressed by some of the residents of Bothwell in
their attitude to a doctor, an element in the community which was later to
caus e Hal l much distress, the appointment was given on August 24 to Grant ,
a single man, as he had been longer in the service.
Now, just before
leavi _ n_g Bighton for Hobart Town to make the "Silver Salver" pres en tat ion,
Hal l heard of chnges in the Medical Department concerned with Dr Officer
which offered the possibility of an appointment at New Norfolk and wrote
to the Colonial Secretary on September 27 requesting a second interview
with the Governor.
The Medical Department , however, informed him on
October 13 that arrngements had been made whi ch did not create a vacancy .
A further disappointment awaited him.
According to the address
at the head of Hall's letters , the fami ly lived in a rented hous e at
agdad, an area a little to the north of Bighton , for the first two years
after their move to the district .
However, in 1836 Hall purchased from
7 cso 5/135/3238.