PURCHASE BOARD FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 24

PURCHASE BOARD FOR NEW ZEALAND.

WELLINGTON, February 26. A .conference of representatives from the various Government Departments has been sitting here for some time discussing the proposal to form a Central Purchase Board for New .Zealand. It is probable that such a board would save the country hundreds of thousands of pounds in the course of a few years. At present purchases are mad© in a rather haphazard measure, and accounts show that often one department paya a good deal more than another department for an exactly similar article. Recently I heard of one department having scrapped a considerable quantity of material regarded as useless; yet it was bought by another department at quite a good price. A similar innovation in London by means of which the buying would be in expert hands would, it is stated, also save the dominion large 'sums of money. Incidentally it may be mentioned that experts think that a considerable saving might be made in loan flotations in London The recent war borrowing in New Zealand revealed the fact that the cost of floating a loan here is much less that it is in England.

MEDICAL ASSOCIATION . , . .. ■*£* DELEGATES WELCOMED. THE NEW PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. The visiting delegates to the . conference of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association were welcomed by Dr Lindo Ferguson (the new president) and Mrs Ferguson- at an at home in. the Art Gallery Hall last night. Medical men have 'Gallery Hall on the 3rd. Medical men have attend the first conference of the association since the outbreak of war, and the assemblage in the hall was thoroughly representative of the medical profession m this country. The sister professions of dentistry and nursing w-ero also represented, and the other professions were recognised through invitations to their leading members. Several other prominent citizens were also invited. The hall was very tastefully decorated with green plants and comfortably furnished for the occasion; and as the guests, having been welcomed by their- host and hostess, passed in it soon became a scene of an animated gathering. Soft music, played by Flint's Orchestra, mingled soothingly with the hum of conversation, and fell ple-isantly on ear and mind. The main purpose of the reception was to welcome the visitors, and to have the retiring and new presidents epitomise past experiences and the future outlook; but the guests were provided with further enjoyment bv Captain Zeisler and Miss Foster, who sang acceptably, Miss Vera Moore playing the accompaniments. Early in the evening the; delegates were welcomed to the city by the Mayor (Mr W. Begg), who referred to the great work of the- medical profession during the war and to the debt of gratitude which the whole community owed them. Dr Irving (the retiring president) said the profession was accustomed to look on Dunedin as the seat of medical learning, and he congratulated the Otago division on ithe number of members it had attracted here. One could not help feeling saddened when one remembered how many old friends would be there no more. It mightf be invidious to mention names, but he could not I elp thinking that that grand old veteran, Dr Batchelor, would have been glad to have been there that night. They might be thankful that so many of the profession had made good and come back to them again. Dr Colquhoun, who had Mono so much far the medical profession in New Zealand, was, unfortunately, unable to accept tho residency at the last moment, but his place had been filled by Dr Ferguson. Dr Ferguson needed no introduction from him. Anyone who had worked with - him knew that he had the welfare of the profession and of the association very much at heart.—(Applause.) One of the most important things on the conference paper was tho suggested establishment of a State medical service. Dr Ferguson, as Dean of the Medical School, looked at the question, he thought, rather differently from those who had graduated many years ago, and he thought it was good that Dr Ferguson would preside, because he would look at it more from the point of view of the man who was just getting through. . . , Dr Ferguson, who was received with apolause, remarked that there had been no meeting of the association in Dunedin for 13 years, and that he was chairman of the last meeting of the old association, held in 1896 at which arrangements were made by which they became voluntarily merged in the British Medical Association. It had been his ambition to be the first president of the new association, but delays and dirnculties resulted in the. find[formation of the association not being effected till the following year, when another became president. This meeting was important in that it was the first since the war, and war had made an enormous difference to medical work and standards Things would never be the same again as before the war. In sur°-erv, in medicine, in public health, more strides had been made in four years of war than in 40 years of peace, because extensive experiments and scientific research had been carried out > under the stress of great emergency, and with the whole financial resources of the associated Powers behind it. Governments were realising that it paid to spend money in research In sanitation our knowledge of public health had increased in leaps and bounds, from the way in which medical men learnt to deal with epidemics in camps In no war had there been such a small loss from sickness as in the great war now fortunately ended. Never before had there not been greater fatality from sickness than from bullets If there was one thing he would say they had to learn, it was the value of -team work. A single man could not do what a body of men could accomplish. _ At the outbreak of war we had an organised Territorial force, but practically no^organisation for tho Medical Corps, and so had to depend upon the civilian men to # do it for us. The grow up in the ifaoe of great difficulties, and the men responsible for It de.«rvcd credit for their work. The civilian nv-dical practitioners who volunteered for servioa also deserved the gratitude of tho community.' No doubt mistakes had been made,, but the work of the N.Z.M.O. was very highly spoken of by thoae in a position to judge. The t)ental Department had earned a name that put in the shade the name of any other

department of the forces involved. It was the first time the Dental Association had been associated with their conference, and he thought it was an innovation of which they mieht be proud. Referring to the outbreak of the war, Dr Ferguson, as Dean of of the Medical School, said that his teachei-3 then all wanted to shut tho school and go to the front. His students, too, were being taken by the Minister of Defence. General Henderson deserved great credit and gratitude for the stand he had taken in the matter. He had come down when the students were rampant for war, and pacified them by showing that they would be ef more value as medical men to heal wounds than if they went out and tried to inflict them. The result was that they had completely .educated over 160 men who they were able to send forward. Touching en the effect of ; conscription on the profession and the assistance rendered by the B.M.A. in that respect,, the speaker said that owing to the tact and consideration shown by General Henderson the scheme worked well, and they were able to send 400 men and yet keep up the work at home. The public and Government were recognising the value of team work, "and as sure as the sun rises to-morrow," said Dr Ferguson, "we are going to have a State medical service. We have got to faoe the fact of a State medical service. On the result of your deliberations this week will largely depend what form that medical service will take. If it takes such a form that the profession has a voice in the direction of its future, of its successor, things will go on all right; but if it is forced on the profession against its will, it will assuredly mean disaster for everyone." He concluded by, expressing the hope that beneficial results would follow the conference.