BAD EYESIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 2, 2 July 1926, Page 13

BAD EYESIGHT

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC

OF OPTICIANS,

"What is the intention of the Bill?" asked Sir Joseph Ward (Invercargill), amidst laughter, when the Opticians Registration Bill was brought down in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Hon. J. A. Young replied: "This is a Bill to provide for the registration of opticians. These are people who are practising and measuring the sight of people and prescribing speptacles." Tho Bill proposed to set up a registration board to examine the qualifications of those desiring registration. "It does not propose to limit their eyesight?" asked Sir Joseph Ward, amidst laughter. The Leader of the National Party (Mr. G. W. .Forbes) wanted to know whether the Bill would prevent watchmakers and others from selling spectacles. "Some people," he said, '•'find an ordinary piece of glass suit them quite admirably." He remembered a member of the House who used to buy his spectacles by the dozen. (Laughter.) These spectacles were as good to him as glasses which cost as much as 30s. Would tho Bill prevent people from buying cheap spectacles? "Amplo provision is made for the protection of such people," replied the Minister. Mr. Holland (Leader of the Opposition) asked whether the Bill provided penalties for deliberate fraud. He referred to people who supplied glasses— very often to the ladies—at prices from £2 10s to £3 lOsj and sometimes £5, but often these were not worth five shillings. He had known of such cases occurring. There were some people who were working fraud from beginning to end. The Minister replied that the Bill made provision to protect the public against iniposters. "Any protection against glass eyes?" queried Mr. Forbes to the accompaniment of laughter. "That will be all right," replied the Minister amidst further laughter. The Bill describes "optometry," or the "practice of optometry" as the employment of any methods for the estimation of errors of refraction of the human eye, not due to disease, and the prescribing or adapting of lenses to correct such errors. The Opticians Board is to consist of the Registrar, three persons engaged in the practice of optometry, and a registered medical practitioner, to be appointed on the recommendation of the Minister of Health. Appointment to the board is to be for a term of three years. Every person shall, on payment of the prescribed fee, bo entitled to be registered as an optician under the Act who satisfies, the board that: (a) he has been actively engaged, whether on his own account or otherwise, in the practice of optometry in New Zealand for not less than six years immediately preceding the commencement of the Act; or (b) he has been actively engaged, whether on his own account or otherwise, in tho practice of optometry in New Zealand, or has otherwise had experience in optometry deemed satisfactory by tho board, for not less than three years, and has passed an examination under the Act in both theoretical and practical optomotry; or (c) he has received satisfactory training as an optician and is tho holder of a certificate recognised by the board pursuant to regulations in that behalf as a sufficient certificate for the purposes of the Act; or (d) he has passed an examination under the Act in both theoretical and practical optometry after a course of not less than three years' training in New Zealand as prescribed by regulations hereimder. No person shall be registered as an optician unless application for registration is made within one year after the commencement of the Act. Persons under 21 years of age shall not be registered. A £50 penalty ia provided for anyone wrongfully procuring registration, and the bord may cancel the registration of anyone guilty of improper conduct. Power is given to appeal against decisions of the board to a broad consisting of a Magistrate and two assessors to be appointed by regulations undor the Act. * It will be an offence punishable by a £20 fine for an unqualified person to describe himself as a registered optician, or to practise optometry. A similar penalty is provided in the case of any person, other than a registered medical practitioner, to describe himself as an occulist. 3STo person other than a medical practitioner may; administer any drug to the eye.