A NOVEL IDEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3004, 29 September 1908, Page 4

A NOVEL IDEA.

The Slate nowadays is called upon to perform many functions. It becomes the foster parent of the neglected infant, grades butter and cheese, takes fire risks, life insurance risks, regulates industry, in fact does nearly everything but regulate the climate. But there is perhaps one thing it has not contemplated so far as the idea was seriously put forward in the Legislative Coun cil the other night, i.e., setting up in business as the manufacturer of simple remedies for the annihilation of common maladies. When the Quackery Prevention Bill was under discussion the Hon. W. W. McCardle said that the craze for proprietary medicines and noxious nostrums would be killed if the Chief Health Officer drew up a few prescriptions for use in the case of common ailments and circulated the same throughout the country. This, he urged, would be a boon to settlers in the back blocks, where proprietary medicines were largely used. The suggestion was received with good-natured scorn by the Hon. Dr Collins, but the Hons. J. Anstey and George Jones openly expressed their approval. In' the days to come one may be hble to ptirI chase "State painkiller',' or "State I liver pills," and a hundred other ' remedies.