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Existing licensed eatinghouses are allowed a period of three years in which, to bring the building into conformity with the new standard. The importance of a high standard in the washing and sterilization of eating utensils is recognized and provided for. Special provisions apply to cafeterias where food is spread out for the customers' selection and is thereby exposed to chance contamination unless suitable precautions are taken. The establishment of adequate hand-wasbing facilities for the staff and the wearing of clean, washable overclothing is required. The regulations are enforceable in all eatinghouses controlled by Departments of State and in all cafeterias in factories and offices. Registration by the local authority is, however, only required in the case of privately-owned eatinghouses that are open to the general public. Quarantine (Air) Regulations 1948 (enacted, 10th March, 1948; came into force, Ist April, 1948). —These regulations are new, and give legal effect to the provisions of the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation, 1933, as amended by UNRRA in 1944, and to which New Zealand is a party. Provision is made for the necessary declaration of health to be given by the commander of each aircraft arriving from overseas, and for a personal declaration of health by each pass'enger. This is of importance, because a passenger can arrive in New Zealand from almost any part of the world within the incubation period of the most serious pestilential diseases, and the personal declaration records his movements during the previous fourteen days. Details are set out of the action to be taken when aircraft arrive having on board persons suffering from smallpox, plague, cholera, typhus, or yellow fever, or when aircraft arrive from a locality infected with any of these diseases. In compliance with the convention, the precautions to be taken are designed to afford the greatest measure of protection against the importation of disease, with the least possible interference with the -movements of passengers and aircraft. The powers and duties of the medical officer at a sanitary aerodrome, and the duties of the commander, crew, and passengers of aircraft, are set out in some detail. Provision is made for the spraying on arrival of all aircraft from overseas so as to guard against the introduction of undesirable mosquitoes and other insects. This is intended to prevent particularly the anopheline mosquito, that carries- malaria, from gaining an entrance into New Zealand. Health (Drainlayers Registration) Regulations 1948 (enacted, 13th October, 1948 ; came into force, Ist April, 1949). —These regulations provide for registration of drainlayers by the Department, and registration enables a drainlayer to work anywhere in New Zealand. Previously each local authority registered drainlayers, and this enabled them to work only in the district of that authority. Any Borough Engineer, or Drainage Board Engineer, or approved Inspector may examine a drainlayer and give him a certificate of competency, but the certificate of registration is issued by the Medical Officer of Health of the district. Health (Infectious and Notifiable Diseases) Regulations 1948 (enacted; 14th April, 1948 ; came into force, 25th April, 1948). —The pre-existing regulations were much out of date as judged by modern conceptions of epidemiology. With the advance in bacteriological science and increased knowledge of disease processes, it became evident that the existing periods of isolation for certain infectious diseases were unnecessarily stringent. Certain new methods of treatment also, made available with penicillin and the sulphonamide drugs, have greatly shortened some disease processes and correspondingly reduced the need for long isolation.

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