PRESENTATION TO ANALYST

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25245, 25 July 1947, Page 8

PRESENTATION TO ANALYST

MR F. J. T. GRIGG’S WORK PRAISED

Mr F. J. T. Grigg, Government analyst, who will leave Christchurch soon to become assistant-director of the Dominion Laboratory, Wellington, was met yesterday afternoon by members of his staff and persons with whom he was closely associated in his work during the last 22 years. iHe was presented with a leather folio case by Mr C. F. Deamead, who spoke for the staff, and gave an outline of the history of the laboratory at Christchurch.

Dr. J. H. Blakelock, medical officer of Health, said that the laboratory at Christchurch under Mr Grigg was the first in New Zealand to take up bacteriological research into Water supplies. Mr Grigg had always given the Department of Health a complete and efficient service. Speaking for the police, Inspector T. E. Holmes said that the important part played by the Government analyst in the detection of crime was not generally realised. It had often been said that the police should have laboratory experts of their own, but he did not agree with this. The services of the Government analyst wese always available, and he had had every confidence in Mr Grigg’s work

The co-operation of Mr Grigg m tests to locate poison gas for the E.P.S. during the war was mentioned by Professor J. Packer. Other speakers were Mr R. T. Alston, secretary of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, and Mr E. F. Gorman, for the Christchurch Gas Company. When he came to Christchurch about 1925, very few milk samples were being taken and that, with several other reasons, accounted for the milk supply being in a bad position, said Mr Grigg in reply. A campaign for better milk had been started the next year, and with the help of inspectors and the establishment of the Milk Board, the position had changed. Cases for the police had always fascinated him. continued Mr Grigg, recalling that among the first he investigated was one in which chocolates filled with poison had been sent to some girls on the West Coast, one of whom died after eating them. The department he worked for was anxious to help secondary industries, and would be able to do more when the new organisation got under way, he said.