Council Will Retain Ex-Officio Members

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30768, 4 June 1965, Page 8

Council Will Retain Ex-Officio Members

(New Zealand Press Association) * WELLINGTON, June 3. The promised reconstitution of the Medical Research Council is made possible by a Medical Research Council Amendment Bill now before Parliament.

The term of office of elected members will be cut from four to three years. Persons appointed for two successive terms will be eligible for reappointment after one year instead of the present four. As recommended by Sir Harold Himsworth, secretary of the British Medical Research Council, two years ago, the Director-General of Health will no longer automatically be chairman of the council. Instead, councillors will be able to choose their own chairman and deputy-chair-man. Sir Harold Himsworth also recommended abandoning exofficio membership. This has not been done. . Eleven Members There will be 11 members instead of 10. Provisions for one nominee each from the British Medical Association, the Board of Health and the Royal Society have been dropped. The council itself will be able to nominate two members, having regal'd to representations from scientific and other disciplines related to its functions. A further two members “of eminence and distinction

in the country” will be appointed on the recommendation of the Minister of Health. Provision for two persons to be nominated by the University Grants Committee has been discarded but the dean of the faculty of medicine at Auckland University and the dean of the faculty of dentistry at Otago University have been added to the ex-officio appointments. The Director-General of Health, the Director-General of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the dean of the faculty of medicine at Otago University remain ex-officio members. New Zealand committees of the Royal Australian Colleges of Surgeons and of Physicians retain their right to nominate one member each. The Public Service will lose its authority to appoint a secretary to the council if the council appoints its own chief executive officer. The council is empowered to contribute to any approved superannuation scheme for its staff. The legislation, which will not take effect until April 1 next year, was read a first time.'