THE SALE OF POISON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1140, 30 August 1913, Page 3

THE SALE OF POISON.

BREACH OF THE ACT. At yesterday’s sitting of the Magistrate’s Court, before Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., Ernest Healey was charged on the information of the police with, on August nth, unlawfully selling a poison (rough on rats) to Kathleen Hynes, a person unknown to him and not introduced by a person known to him. Sub-Inspector Marsack prosecuted on behalf of the police, and defendant pleaded guilty to the sale of the poison, but stated that he was under the impression that “rough on rats” came under the provisions relating to the sale of poisons for the destruction of vermin and under which the knowledge referred to was not required. The Sub-Inspector outlined the circumstances under which the sale had been made and said that defendant had admitted at the inquest that he knew the person referred to by sight only and the Sub inspector submitted that this was not sufficient. The defendant produced a new poisons book which he had just received and In the extracts from the Act pasted in same there was a section which stated that in the sale of poison for the destruction of vermin the provision that the vendor must personally know the purchaser did not apply. The Magistrate said he was afraid chemists would be misled if they acted on the extracts of the Act pasted in the book produced by defendant. The Act of 1871 contained the provision referred to but this had been amended in 1908. The Sub-Inspector said that Mr Healey had acted very straightforwardly in the matter and had I evidently been misled by the extracts contained in his book. The Magistrate said the extracts in the book were very misleading and should be brought under the notice of the Pharmaceutical Society as probably chemists all over the Dominion were acting as Mr Healey had done and their notice should be drawn to same. Defendant was fined 40s, with costs 7s.