HEALTH DEPARTMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20630, 31 July 1930, Page 12

HEALTH DEPARTMENT.

PROBAELE NEW DIRECTOR, DR. M. H. WATT MENTIONED. ("BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. No appointment has yet been mad# of a successor to the Director-General of Health, Dr. T. H. A. Valintine, whose retirement from the Health Department has been announced, but it can almost b» taken for granted that he will be succeeded by tlie present Deputy-Director-General, Dr. M. H. Watt. The anticipated appointment of Br# Watt is believed to involve a changs in the control of the department, and is understood that no steps will be taken to fill the present post o' Deputy-Director-General when he vacates it to becom* head of the service. Most of Dr. Watts' medical career has been spent in the service of the Health Department. The son of a Presbyterian minister,, he was born at Dunedin, and graduated from the Otago Medical School in 1910. He has the honour of being the first New Zealand graduate to bo appointed to the department. He was awarded a travelling scholarship, and went to England for post-graduate study. On his return Dr. Watt set up in private practice at Ngaruawahia, In 1917 he joined the department as a distiict medical officer of health, and in the same year he was appointed liy the New Zealand University as examiner in physiology. Dr. Watt has also acted for the university as examiner in pul/iic health.