Notable South Australians/David Gall
David Gall,
PRINTER, is a native of Woodbridge, Suffolk, where he was apprenticed. After working for three years in London, he came to Adelaide in 1850, and continued at his trade. Li 1855 he joined Messrs. Hussey & Shawyer, and eventually the business fell into his hands. In 1867 Mr. Grail propounded the question and reply:—"What shall we do with our boys? Encourage local industries, so as to give them profitable employment." He started a monthly journal. The Cornet^ which was the first South Australian paper to advocate a protective policy. Its principles met with much ridicule and opposition from the Press of that day, but ere its discontinuance in 1881 a marked change had come over public opinion in favour of the views it so consistently and persistently advocated for sixteen years. Though frequently asked to occupy public positions, Mr. Gall declined to do so, on account of failing health, which led him to retire from business in 1873, leaving it in the hands of Mr. Reginald Sheridan, his then partner. As a frequent correspondent to the Press, his pen is ever ready to aid in calling attention to public abuses, or in suggesting improvements, and his letters in the daily papers have been marked by telling terseness. Prevention of cruelty to animals and preserving the park lands for the use of the people were objects for which he personally struggled hard, and to a large extent succeeded. He has been an active member of the Chamber of Manufactures from its commencement, and an earnest worker in connection with the Christian Church, Grote-street, for several years. As a private gentleman and a citizen Mr. Gall enjoys the esteem and friendship of many of his fellow-colonists.