TRADE RESTRICTIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4770, 6 July 1876, Page 2

TRADE RESTRICTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, — If anyone competent to judge were asked what is the most popular medicine in the Southern Hemisphere, he would probably say “ chlorodyne.” And it is deservedly so, for in summer for diarrhoea, in winter for coughs and colds, and at all times for internal pain, chlorodyne is invaluable : consequently it is in almost every dwelling in New Zealand, and is an article of everyday sale in a thousand country stores. Would it surprise the proprietors of these stores to learn that on and after the 29th September next any of them selling chlorodyne without first being registered as a “ seller of poisons,” and at every sale neglecting to label the bottle with their name and address, and also the word “poison,” for every such sale will be liable to a penalty of five pounds sterling at the option of any informer. This law has been enacted by that mysterious power, “Jan Order in Council.” One is' disposed to wonder what wholesale murder has been committed to justify such a severe restriction. It will be curious to witness the result. Will these storekeepers cease keeping chlorodyne, or will the law be systematically broken, such as it was when the first Poisons Bill most absurdly included “ almond flavor,” and grocers daily and hourly broke the law with impunity ? It is a very grave misfortune when laws are enacted which are rendered inoperative by their impracticability, for a feeling of contempt for all law is engendered. The same Order in Council puts chloral on a level with chlorodyne. Now chloral is unknown in commerce, being a “ colorless oily liquid,” which probably not a dozen individuals in New Zealand have ever seen.—l am, &c., Trader. [Our correspondent forgets that instances of death from overdoses of chlorodyne are of frequent occurrence. In fact, a person who wants to commit suicide can do it as effectually by means of this drug as by any other.— Ed. N. Z. Times.]