CHEMISTS IN COUNCIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 836, 7 June 1910, Page 4

CHEMISTS IN COUNCIL.

* WHAT THEY WILL DISCUSS. One of the most interesting subjects to be discussed at tho conference of the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Association, which opens at 8.30 this evening, will be some proposals for the amendment iof the Poisons Act. A committee of AVellington chemists has drawn up a series of amendments, which are aimed chiefly at securing a stricter and more regular system of registration of persons authorised to sell poisons. The present law dates from 1871, and it is suggested that there is no longer a need for the wide liberty which it gives to unqualified persons to sell almost all sorts of poisons. It is proposed, inter alia, that the Government shall charge a fee of os: for registration, and that while tho vending of certain poisons shall be confined to qualified chemists, other poisons which are in common use for agricultural and other purposes may be sold by any registered vendor, but only in original packages. Speakers at the conference will endeavour to show that some such provisions as these are needed for the protection of the public. The question of co-operating with the sister organisations in Australia in establishing an Australasian formulary is of great interest to pharmacists. In support of the proposal, many examples will be given to show that the British pharmacopoeia, both in what it omits and what it includes, is by no means so wcil adapted, to the needs of this part of the world as could be wished. A complete list of the papers to be read at the conference . was published yesterday. The delegates from other centres have begun to arrive. The following were in town yesterday :—Messrs. Teed and Parnam (Auckland), Bates (Hastings), Haslett and Scholefield (Dunedin), Barrett and Bennington (Christchurch).