PATENT MEDICINE REGULATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 15, 18 January 1905, Page 4

PATENT MEDICINE REGULATIONS.

There ca« be no doubt abput the view of our new patent medicine law held by the" people most seriously the owner* of valuable proprietary yp_ medics. As how as particulars of the Order-in-Council reached England a d<?putatiop representing two hundred manufacturers waite.d upon the AgentGeneral to protest against it. One point raised by the deputation was that the new regulation is ultra vires—in other woads, that it constitutes an interference with the rights of private property, which Government Has not the power to touch except with the counsel and consent of Parliament. If the Health Department insists on applying the new regulations, this point will doubtless be considered by the proper authorities. At the same time the gentlemen who interviewed Mr Reeves have declared themselves willing to submit to any reasonable regulation that would protect the pubHp health without destroying their own vested rights. They spoke with favour of the German method of official analysis ?f proprietary medicines, which are subjected to heavy duties, both import pnd excise, if they can be shown to be of a tennful nature, This appears to be a fair restriction, but it is certainly a very different matter from demanding that the owners of patent rights In roediclnea shall publish a full and dstailed redjjp* of thalr compounds.

The proprietors of patent medicines commanding a large sale will certainly not consent to surrender their special knowledge to the general public H» this philanthropic, fashion, and If the regulation is enforced all the really valuable Sat ent medicines would probably be withrawn from New Zealand. This, we believe, would be In many ways a serious loss to the community, and we hope that the" arguments used by the deputation that waited on Mr Reeves will, produce some effect* on the Health Department. There seems to be a good deal of misunderstanding as to the German regulation* dealing \yith patent medicines, for when protests were- first raised in the colony against the Order-in-Council its advocates qn several occasion-) referred to the German restriction as justifying pur own much more drastic rqle. But, as we haye sho\yp, the German regulations are much less exacting, and more reasonable, and we trust that the Premier, who rnus> long ago have discovered that the Qrder-in-Council was issued without due consideration, will take steps to have it modified into some tolerable and rational form.