Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/562

 r.,6 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Dr. vv r. s,r,iti, reformt'r that Dr. Ramsay Smith did his most permanent work in Scotland and Wales ; and it was as a pioneer in pul)lic health that his friends and associates expected most from him. ilis appointment to the Adelaide Hospital, whilst it oave him an opportunity of extensively and thoroughly studying the diseases of the Province, had the effect of withdrawing him from active administration in sanitary work. But his appointment as President of the newlv reconstructed Central Board of Health for South Australia ^ave him the opportunity he had been so long prepared for, and he turned to the task of bringing the new Public Health Act into operation. The completeness and foresight with which this work was done soon evidenced when, at the end of the year 1899, the Hoard and Government were called upon to deal with the first cases of plague that had a[)peared on the Australian continent. South Australia was prepared to undertake the detection, isolation, and treatment of cases in such a prompt and effective manner as scarcely any other colony could equal. To a knowledge of the principles of sanitation and legislation he adds such ])ersonal supervision and a mastery of detail that nothing is overlooked or unprovided for. A strong Saxon clear .sense of justice;, inherited from one side by ancestry, and a fervid Celtic philosophical spirit from the other, has formed a combination which makes him an impossible man to those who follow crooked ways or practise oppression or injustice in any form. Otherwise Dr. Ramsay Smith is the pleasantest and most .sociable man possible. Mr. Henry Scott MR. HENRY SCOTT is a native of Boode, near Braunton, North Devon, and was born in 1836. When 18 years old he came to .South Australia, and in 1854 became clerk in the mercantile office ol his brother, Mr. Abraham Scott. In 1866 he took over his brother's business as a wool merchant. He is a commission agent, and was attorney (or the Cornwall P'ire and Marine Insurance Comjiany until its amalgamation with the Commercial Union Assurance Company, of which he is now a director ; he is al.so the representative of the Eagle Life Assurance Company. He was for many years a director of the National Bank, and took an active part in the foundation of that institution in Adelaide. He has been a director of the Bank of Adelaide since 1889, and also a director of the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Company, as well as of the National Mutual Life Association. P'or 35 years he has been an important pastoralist. In 1877 Mr. Scott was elected Mayor of Ad(laide, and applied all his energies to the inauguration of an efficient system of deep drainage for the city. In 1878 he was elected to the Legislative Council (before the subdivision of the Province into electoral districts), and he sat in the Ujiper Hou.se continuously from that date until 1891. He is Vice-[)resident of the Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers' PViends' Society, Chairman of Committee Home for Incurables, member of committee of the Blind and Deaf and Dumb Institution at Brighton, and President of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society. Mr. Scott has been a prominent all-round colonist. He possesses the characteristic persistency and boldness of the Britisher, with his wisdom in council and his charity to the poor. In Parliament and in th(City Council he did a good work, and one which is prominent in the annals of South Australia.