CANCER SOCIETY WORK

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25934, 14 October 1949, Page 9

CANCER SOCIETY WORK

NEW DUTIES FOR MR ROTH REPORT BY SIR JAMES ELLIOTT (Neto Zealand Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 13. New duties for Mr G. E. Roth, director of the radio-physics laboratory in Christchurch, were the subject of negotiations between the Government and the New Zealand division of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society, said the president of the branch (Sir James Elliott) to-day. It was proposed that Mr Roth, who was due for study leave in Europe, should be engaged on teaching and organising routine supervision of radio-active substances, while acting as consultant to the society. The budget for the work at Christchurch for the coming year was £5600, said Sir James Elliott. It was proposed to invite Dr. Read, a retired worker in radio physics at Mount Vernon Cancer Laboratory, London, to take an appointment in the society’s laboratory. Mr H. C. Sutton, at present on study leave, would shortly return to New Zealand. Sir James Elliott said it was estimated that nearly 100,000 X-ray and radium treatments for cancer were given every year throughout New Zealand, both in hospitals and privately. The society supplied radium and maintained the efficiency of the X-ray machines. This work was under the supervision of the society’s Christchurch laboratory. Sir James Elliott said there were heavy expenses in connexion with the society’s other research laboratory at the Medical School in Dunedin. In addition there was also a proposal by the Auckland division, out of its own funds, to do a modified form of research in Auckland. Reports on the research work of the New Zealand branch had been submitted recently to the International Commission on Cancer at Paris, and it compared favourably with the work of other countries. It received special praise at a meeting of the commission, said Sir James Elliott. The annual meeting of the New Zealand division was held yesterday.