CHLOROFORM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 July 1924, Page 5

CHLOROFORM.

GOVERNMENT PURCHASE. SAID TO BE LOW GR ADE. (BY TELEGRAPH-—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, July 14. A singular story of the disposal in New Zealand of a fairly large quantity of cheap grade chloroform as the very best brand lies behind an assertion of Mr. H. Cecil Smart, Dominion agent in Auckland for Messrs Duncan, Flockl hart and Company, manufacturing chemists, of Edinburgh and London” that a department of' State ha s been responsible for profiteering in the drug..' The allegation was • made by Mr. Smart in a letter published in the Herald last week

In an interview Mr. Smart amplified his statement, alleging, briefly, that the New Zealand Defence Department had purchased a quantity of inferior grade chloroform, part of the British Ministry of Munitions’ surplus war stocks., A great deal of correspondence passed between Mr. Smart and representatives of the Government, and for a time, said Air. Smart, the New Zealand authorities tried to argue that the drug was white label chloroform and that the label was marked “pure.” When this error was pointed out to them they cabled to London and learned that they had been selling blue label chloroform, which is now sold in London at 4s 2d a pound, while the Defence Department ; charged 11s 6tl. Instructions were issued, however, that no further sales were to be made and former purchasers were notified. It is asserted however, that a considerable quantity of the wartime brand was unloaded in Neiv Zealand, and that, as a result, doctors are shy of chloroform. •