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PDF (Whole thesis) - UTas ePrints - University of Tasmania

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.<br />

intolerable.<br />

79<br />

Moreover, his financial resources were now so straitened<br />

by the curtailment <strong>of</strong> his private practice that he found it difficult<br />

to provide for his growing family, and requested a transfer which he was<br />

promised.<br />

In the meantime, on June 1, 1843, he asked for protection<br />

from Clarke, ascribing his dedication to the public interest as the<br />

cause <strong>of</strong> the private persecution being meted out to him. ·stodart was<br />

accordingly rebuked the next day .<br />

It has lately come to my knowledge that you extend your private<br />

practice beyond the limits <strong>of</strong> your district and where the<br />

services <strong>of</strong> a medical- <strong>of</strong>ficer can be obtained on the spot .<br />

You receive the pay <strong>of</strong> a Probation Assistant Surgeon which is<br />

higher than that <strong>of</strong> a District one. As it is expected the former<br />

class will confine themselves very much to their Public Duties -<br />

if these can be performed correctly, I have no obj ection to<br />

Private Practice - but so long as I have charge <strong>of</strong> the Colonial<br />

Medical Department, I sha ll not allow a Probation Assistant<br />

Surgeon leaving the Pub lic Duties <strong>of</strong> his own station for the<br />

purpose <strong>of</strong> private practice in that <strong>of</strong> another already provided<br />

with a qua lified medical gentleman. 4 1<br />

raging in Bothwell.<br />

But no interdict <strong>of</strong> Clarke 's was ab le to quell the disturbance<br />

Hal l's enemies were vehement in their determination<br />

that , if they were not allowed to employ Stodart, they would not engage<br />

Hall either.<br />

They protested that Clarke's order was illegal, arbitrary<br />

and unj ust, and provided Stodart did not interfere with the convicts in<br />

Government emp loyment who were Hall's responsibility, the Principal<br />

Medical Officer had no power to prevent them engaging any doctor they<br />

wished.<br />

They were supported in their attitude by an article in the<br />

Colonial Times , thought by Hal l to have been written by Robinson, which<br />

declared that Clarke had no authority to force Hal l or any other medical<br />

practitioner down their throats , nor, acting in this "Algerine or<br />

Pasha,.... like style" to c:reate a medical monopoly. 4 2 Headed by Barrow ,<br />

whose wife had been deprived <strong>of</strong> Stodart 's medical care during her<br />

confinement , twenty one persons signed a petition taken round by the<br />

Chief Constable Redmond to have Hall removed from the district .<br />

Directed on June 10, 1843, to Colonial Secretary J.E. Bicheno, the<br />

petition read<br />

We, the undersigned inhabitants <strong>of</strong> the District <strong>of</strong> Bothwell,<br />

request you will be good enough to lay before His Excellency,<br />

the Lieutenant Governor, the great hardship and inconvenience<br />

1<br />

;.,<br />

'{1..<br />

\<br />

41 c.s.o. 22/80/1743 .<br />

42 Colonial Times , June 27, 1843 .<br />

. '{.'<br />

\;,

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