IMPORTANT CONFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11415, 11 January 1923, Page 6

IMPORTANT CONFERENCE

FIRST IN NEW ZEALAND

WELLINGTON PRESIDENT’S WELCOME.

This, said Mr Castle, was the first occasion that the Australasian Pharmaceutical Conference had come to New Zealand. It had been in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, and now at was meeting in Wellington. He had great pleasure in welcoming the Minister for Publio Health (the Hon. O. J. Pan-), and the Mayor of Wol-. lington (Mr R. A. Wright, M.P.), and the Australian and New Zealand chemists who had cohio- to Wellington to take part in the work of the Science Congress as well as of their own conference. He was especially pleased to see so many Australian delegates to the congress present that evening. The importance of the gathering could bo gaugied by the fact that they had represented at that reception the 3500 registered chemists in Australia and New Zealand, who were carrying on the pharmaceutical services required by the more than six million' people of those two countries. It was thus, he considered the most important pharmaceutical gathering yet held in Australasia, and they wo ro most fortunate in having it held in New Zealand. That was made possible by the fact that the Science Congress was being held here at the same time. In Australia and New Zealand they, as pharmacists, had all been trained on British lines, they were all working under pharmacy laws based on the English pharmacy laws, and all working on the British pharmacopeia, andi that tended l to draw them all together in practice and in sympathy. They had met to disouss the scientific, ethical, legal, and practical aspects of pharmacy; and he hoped that they would have a very useful and successful conference. (Applause.)

MAYOR EXTENDS WELCOME. The Mayor extended to the visitors and delegates, on behalf of the citizens of Wellington, a very hearty welcome. He especially welcomed the Australian delegates, 'who, Ilk® selves, were an admirably blend of the English, Scotch, and Irish, and Welsh races; and expressed the hope that their stay in New Zealand would be both pfeasant and profitable. He paid a high tribute to the work done by chemists in time beth of peace and war. In the recent great war, he remarked, they had been called upon to render a speoial service, a most import, ant service, that of finding means of protection against poison gas; and if ever there was another war, which he hoped there would never he (applause), the chemists might have assigned to them the duty of discovering still more potent means than the old poison gas of destroying life, as well as measures for combating the destructive powers evolved by the enemies’ cbem ists. Still, whatever they were called upon, to do, he was confident that they would prove as equal to the occasion as in the last war. (Applause ) THE MINISTER’S SPEECH. The Hon O. J. Parr (Minister for Publio Health) associated himself with the Mayor and citizens, of Wellington in their welcome, and tendered to all the delegates and visitors an equally warm welcome on behalf of the Government of New Zealand. (Applause.) He was very pleased to see so many Australian delegates and visitors present. He was always pleased to see our kin from across the Tasman Sea. (Applause.) The kindly relations between the two countries, the furthest flung outposts of our great Empire, should be cultivated and encouraged, not only as a matter of kinship, but as one of-imperial policy. We had to hold aloft the flag of our Empire and of British civilisation in these advanced outposts. We had to remember that, as our statesmen and publicists had often said, the great centre of world activity, the great storm centre of the world, had now shifted from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific ; and in this ocean we two peoples of Australia and New Zealand might have in th 0 future to play a very large, a very important, a very serious part. (Applause.) PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. There were other races on the verge of the Pacifio Ocean. We wished to dwell in peace and amity with all men; and it should be the policy of Australia and New Zealand alike to cultivate the most friendly relations with all. But we could depend upon it that our national security, our national importance and value, depended upon New Zealand and Australia getting closer and closer together upon the great questions, such as that of defence, that might affect the two great nations that wo were building up under the Southern Cross. (Applause.) There was in New Zealand,. as His Worship the Mayor had said, nothing but the most cordial feelings towards our brethren across the sea. For eight years, before he became a Minister of the Crown, and thus had all his time fully occupied, he had visited Australia every winter, and had learnt to like and respect pur countrymen over there. He had enjoyed their hospitality; and anything he could do to reoiprocato it, whether as a Minister of the Crown or as a private citizen, he would gladly do. While it seemed to him that the very different climatic and other

conditions in Australia and New Zealand were developing very distinct types, both mental and physical, of the British race, still both types were very admirable in their different ways; and he was certain that, whatever the surface differences, we would all still he Britishers to the core in all that mado for the good of humanity. (Applause.) RECENT LEGISLATION. Ho was glad to admit ,that he had tried to be a friend to the pharmacists in this country. His duty as Minister

for Public Health had brought him into close contact with their chairman and with the Pharmacy Board; and he must pay a tribute to the manner in which the Pharmacy Board, which was quite apart from the Government, had oarried out its business. He had had the pleasure during the past session of passing a measure putting their affairs on a better basis. Parliament had legislated in the direction of making four years, instead of three, the period of apprenticeship for pharmacists; and in addition to other improvements, power had been taken — he thought rightly—to exclude, in the interests of the public and of a higher standard of efficiency amongst pharmacists, the rather poorly-qualified apothecaries’ assistants who had recently in the Old Country —he thought mistakenly—been admitted to the British register. (Applause.) At present the New Zealand law in respect to poisons was claimed by 1 the Pharmaceutical Society to he very lax in regard, for instance, to the sale from general stores to the farmers of such poisons as sheep-dip and so forth. The Pharmaceutical Society wished to have the sale of all poisons put in the hands of registered persons only. But the farming community had naturally strongly objected to that, and he had been unable to do anything in . the direction desired, although he recognised the soundness of the general principle. (Applause.) \ AUSTRALIAN PRESIDENT RESPONDS.

Mr A. R. Bailey (president of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Conference) thanked all the 'speakers most sincerely for their cordial welcome. But the Australian visitors had not expected anything else. (Applause.) They had heard of New Zealand for many years, and were quite prepared to have a most enjoyable time in this country. (Applause.) Looking round the city, with its fine houses spread up the hills, the totally different view from what they were used to in Australia in itself repaid them for\the trip. (Applause.) The city had a feeling of solidity about it, as they looked at its buildings—magnificent solid struatures, which had come to stay; buildings which spoke of a people who had got plenty of money to invest in the way in which it should be invested. (Applause.) And then the conditions of their own pharmaceutical profession showed that they were sound, good people, wishing to leave the world better, very much better, than they had found it. (Applause.) A GREAT COMPLIMENT. The Minister for Public Health and the Mayor had referred to the great responsibilities undertaken by pharmacists; and one of the greatest compliments ever paid to the profession had reoently been paid to them under the Treaty of Versailles. Article XXIII. said that the Allies should make regulations as to the sale and use of dangerous drugs; and the conference at Genera had looked around and i,asked to whom could it entrust this important duty, and it had been entrusted *to the pharmacists. (Applause.) The Australian Commonwealth Government was already drawing up legislation for the purpose. Ho thought, therefore, that it was up to them as pharmacists to bring up their standard in every possible way, beginning with the training of their apprentices, making them first qualified pharmacists, and after that research pharmacists. (Applause.) In Australia they had eucalyptus and other gums and plants from which most valuable pharmaceutical preparations could be made; and he was sure that we in New Zealand were equally favoured by nature with gums and plants that would well repay research work. (Applause.) Such conferences as that they were about to hold afforded them a wonderful stimulus and wonderful pleasure, and in every way promoted the harmony that should exist throughout the whole of the pharmaceutical world. (Applause.) During the war we in Australasia had found ourselves up against great difficulties in regard to the 6Upply and the preparation of drugs. Australia had not been prepared for the war from a pharmaceutical point of view; hut they had since been tackling the problem of being pharmaceutically ready for the next war, if war should again come—ready to take their place at once in the army of the future. (Applause.) He again thanked them for their very hearty welcome. Coffee and light refreshments were then served, and ithe remainder of the programme was of a social character. THE DELEGATES The following wefe the delegates present: —J. W. Cochran (Victoria) T. Smith (Sydney), W. Archer (Sydney), Cneshire (Victoria), "S. Crowley (Brisbane), F. P. J. Gray (Sydney), Wadsworth (Sydney), D. Page (Sydney), C. L. Butchers (Melbourne), H. Rankin (Victoria), H. B. Taylor (Sydney), A. R. Bailey (Victoria), A. T. Sissons (Victoria!, F. P. Gulley (Perth), F. Castle, F. A. Provost, A. G. Glenny O. T. Arthur, F. B. King, J. C. Burbery, Miss Gregory ? R. Johnston, G. Castle, S. Brcdin, Toomath, B. Donaldson, R. H. B. Good, H. H. Furneaux, B. O’Connor, Ballinger, F. Ingram McMillan, G. W. Morey, L. J. Williamson, L. S. W. McKenzie, J. Castle, O. H. Perrett, A. A. Mee, C. B. McDougall, H. R. Gibbs, G. Bayley (all of Wellington), J. Baillie (Hamilton), C. Kiver and W. F. McArthur (ChxistcHurch), G. O. Woodward (Hastings), J. A. S. Tingey (Feilding), L. Longmore (Pahiatua), R. S. Fear (Pukekohe), Topplis (representing Burroughs, Wellcome and Co.), R. Gardener (Dunedin), W. H. Wilton and R. C. L. Laird (Auckland).