H.—3l

International Agreements. Quarantine. New Zealand is a signatory to the International Sanitary Convention, which was signed at Paris on 21st June, 1926. Ratification of the agreement by the Government of New Zealand was deposited with the French Government on 26th May, 1928. This convention, which has been ratified by the great majority of the maritime states of the world, aims at international quarantine co-operation. Part I of this agreement is the section with which New Zealand is concerned, and the sixty-six articles of this section detail the international code which governs the application of measures of quarantine in the signatory countries with respect of plague, cholera, yellow fever, epidemic typhus, and epidemic smallpox. Venereal Diseases. The Dominion has subscribed to an international agreement respecting facilities to be given to merchant seamen for the treatment of venereal diseases. This was signed at Brussels on Ist December, 1924, notification of the accession of New Zealand being made to the Belgian Government on 21st August, 1925. The essence of this agreement is that the contracting parties undertake to provide in their main ports a service for the treatment of venereal diseases which shall be open to all seamen free of charge and without distinction of nationality. In New Zealand this service is provided by arrangement with the Hospital Boards in the main ports, and Table E, giving statistics of venereal disease clinics in the four centres, includes cases of seamen treated under the Brussels agreement. Dangerous Drugs. New Zealand is a party to the following international agreements in regard to the narcotic habitforming drugs : — (a) Hague Opium Convention of 1912. —This convention provided for the licensing of manufacturers of narcotics and the recording of the quantities of opium, morphine, and cocaine manufactured and distributed in the countries bound by the agreement. Ratification of the agreement was to some extent held up by the Great War, and the traffic in dangerous drugs was among the questions raised at the Peace Conference. The need was felt for more positive measures of limitation of the manufacture of dangerous drugs. (b) Geneva Opium Convention, 1925. —This convention signed at the Second Opium Conference at Geneva on 19th February, 1925, resulted to a large extent from the work of a committee set up by the League of Nations in 1920, later known as the Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs. This agreement entailed strict control of imports and exports and the furnishing of statistics of exports, imports, manufacture, consumption, and stocks to the Permanent Central Opium Board. (c) Convention for Limitation of Manufacture and Regulation of the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, Geneva, 1931. —This establishes direct limitation on the manufacture of the various dangerous drugs and the regulation of exports and imports from each country according to quotas fixed from the statements of estimated requirements furnished by the various Governments to the Permanent Central Opium Board. In New Zealand the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1927, and the Dangerous Drugs Regulations 1928 were enacted in compliance with the obligations undertaken. This Department is concerned with the distribution within New Zealand, and for the purpose of inspecting the records of persons licensed to deal in dangerous drugs officers with pharmaceutical experience are stationed in the four main centres. During the year the majority of the pharmacies in the Dominion have been inspected, the opportunity being taken at the same time to enforce the provisions of the Poisons Act, 1934, and the Poisons (General) Regulations 1937.

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