VoL ii., No. 5. 
121 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
increasingly large one, there being an average of 28 students 
on the books. On the other hand the attendance of horn fide 
pharmacy students in the pharmacy department of the Tech- 
nical College has so far fallen away that I am credibly in- 
formed that the numbers had dwindled down to seven or 
eight at the end of last year. Now it is a perfectly well 
known and recognised fact that, the Technical College classes 
must not stand still, much less must they fall away in the 
manner I have indicated. The College and its managers are 
bound to justify their existence in the eyes of the public and 
in the minds of the Government, and hence it is not surpris- 
ing that when this falling away in the department of phar- 
macy was seen to be a serious and permanent one, that the 
powers that be should seek to sound the Society as to the 
terms upon which the latter would hand over its students to 
bolster up the failing department. These soundings culmi- 
nated in the Board of Technical Education requesting a con- 
ference with two representatives of the Society, and as a 
result we have a set of proposals which to say the least of 
them are astounding. Had the Society and its educational 
department fallen into a state of desuetude and helplessness, 
whilst the Board’s department of pharmacy was in the highest 
state of favor and prosperity, one would not have been so 
greatly surprised at proposals such as these ; but with the posi- 
tions exactly reversed it says a good deal for the Council that 
they have had the politeness and self-control to consider 
them. It does not require a very vivid imagination to con- 
ceive what would have been the effect on the Board of Tech- 
nical Education had the Council taken the initiative and 
submitted proposals dealing with the constitution and powers 
of the Board in the way the latter have had the presumption 
to deal with the constitution and powers of the Council. 
Imagine the latter dictating to the Board as .to how their 
members and president are to be elected, the tenure of office 
of the latter, the disposal of fees received by the Board, the 
submitting of bye-laws, regulations, &c., made by the Board to 
.the Council, and a few other equally preposterous conditions. 
The Technical Board would think, and rightly, that the Council 
had taken leave of its senses. The proposals read more like a 
joke than anything else, and if really intended to be serious 
they show bad taste'onthe part of their framers. If one is to 
judge from these proposals, their author or authors must have 
formed a very low estimate of the mental capacity of the 
members of the Council. In having decided to consider the 
proposals at all, instead of rejecting them at once and //i toto, 
as it was at first xn-oposed to do, the Council has set the 
Board a lesson in good manners which they will do well to 
take to heart. The smallest consideration of these absurd 
propositions will serve to show that not only would they 
deprive the society of its present control over the education 
and examination of the rising generation of x:)harmacists, but 
that they would actually destroy the independence and 
position of the society itself, and reduce it to the humiliating 
position of being a mere tool to be used for the Board’s own 
purposes. True, a nominal power is vested in the Society, 
but it will be noted that the real power is in every case 
reserved by the Board of Technical Education. To those who 
are able to read between the lines a good deal is to be learned 
from these proposals. Thus the offer of the Board to i)ay all 
the expenses of the proposed College of Pharmacy seems a 
very generous one, until one remembers that in reality all it 
means is that they take over the Society’s students and add 
them to their own, altering the name of the department of 
pharmacy to the more grandiloquent “Pharmaceutical Col- 
lege,” whilst at the same time they obtain the practical 
control, not only of the curriculum, but also of the exami- 
nations. This is undoubtedly the idea, but in the last x>ar- 
tioular I think the Board have made a slight mistake. The pre- 
sent examiners are appointed by the Board of Pharmacy, and 
have been so gazetted, and under no circumstances can they re- 
cognise any arrangement made in the Technical College a 
regards examinations. Then, again, the proposal that the 
president of the Society shall be elected every three years, 
instead of yearly as at x>resent, and that he shall be ex ofido 
a member of the Board of Technical Education, would strike 
most people as a very palpable bid for the president’s vote and 
influence, and again I think the Board has made a mistake, 
since the president is the last man to be thus influenced. 
The Board_ further proposes to obtain an “Act of Incorpo- 
ration,” giving it ful.l powers over the proposed pharmaceutical 
and other colleges, and indirectly hints that it will hence be 
unnecessary to proceed with its Act of Incorporation. If I 
understand aright the interpretation is as follows — The 
Board are aware that the Society’s Act of Incorporation was- 
viewed favourably by the late and present Government, was 
reported by a committee of the late Parliament without 
amendment, has the support of a leading member of the 
Government, and has been most favorably spoken oi by both 
the late and present Ministers for Public Instruction. The 
chances of the Act soon becoming law being excellent, the 
Board coolly hint that it should be withdrawn, practically 
that more power may be placed in their hands, whilst the 
society is at the same time prevented from taking a proper 
legal status and the position in the x^ublic mind it is entitled 
to. And be it remembered that at the very outset the Tech- 
nical Board’s proposed Act has been condemned by the 
Minister for Public Instruction in the most unqualified 
manner. With regard to the vital j)art of the Act, viz., the 
establishment of more or less autonomous sx>ecial colleges, it 
may be of interest to quote Mr. Inglis’ remarks : — “ He might 
observe, with regard to the scheme submitted in the bill pro- 
posed by them, that they contenix^lated by far too large a 
Council. Another objection was that they proposed to call in 
the aid of experts and form sub-committees. With such a. 
bulky board as they contemplated they would find themselves 
in irretrievable confusion.” One more point as regards the 
Board’s proposals, and I may leave them to the certain con- 
demnation of every friend and well-wisher of the Society. 
The wording of several clauses is so vague and loose that the 
exact force is not easy to understand in some instances, and 
one stupid blunder stands out beyond all others. In Clause 
I. it is stated that the proposed Pharmaceutical College is to 
be managed by a joint Council composed of members of 
the Board and members of the Society, but in Clause IV. it is 
stated — “The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society to pre- 
scribe examination papers, supervise examinations, nominate 
professors ('d’icj and teachers, and conduct all the business of 
the College^ and be vested in all its prox)erty, being liable,, 
however, in all its work to the possible veto of the ‘Board.’ ” 
The joint Council has evidently b-sen totally forgotten, or 
else it is intended that both that body and the Council of the 
Society are to manage the proposed college in some extraor- 
dinaryway understood by the Board only. Having treated these 
proposals with much more courtesy than they were entitled 
to, it only remains for the Council to decline them in toto-^ 
giving the Board at the same time to understand that they 
can never consent to outside interference with the powers and 
constitution of the Society, even should such interference be 
under the guise of an educational movement. 
Reciprocity. 
During the month an official intimation from the Pharma ^ 
ceutical Society of South Australia has been received, to the 
effect that reciin’ocity with the Society in this colony has been 
formally agreed to, so that reciprocity has now been officially 
declared between New South Wales and all the colonies 
except Victoria. As will be seen from a report of tho 
Council meeting, held on April 4, no less than eight 
gentlemen belonging to other colonies made application 
for membership, and Mr. Pinhey informs me that such 
applications and enquiries continue to be made almost 
daily. He also informs me that letters have been received 
from the officials in each colony, expressing their pleasure at 
the action of this Society, and containing many evidences of 
goodwill and cordiality. This is undoubtedly as it should be, 
and I take it that no better criticism of the action of the 
Council of the N.S.W. Pharmaceutical Society could be 
offered. 
The Election of Members of the Council. 
It would appear that no notices have been sent in by gen- 
tlemen aspiring to seats in the Council, so that no election 
will take place this year. Messrs. Abrahams and Thornton, 
having been nominated by the President to fill extraordinary 
vacancies, will retire in June next ; but since no notices of 
candidature have been sent in, it seems probable that they 
will retain their seats ; though whether they will have to be 
elected by the general body of members, or be simply elected 
by the other members of the Council I cannot quite see. If it 
is necessary that they should be elected by the members of 
the Society generally, then it would seem necessary that they 
should have given the usual notice of candidature ; but hav- 
ing failed to do so, it is not easy to understand what can be 
done. If I understand the bye-laws aright, the Council have 
no power to elect members of that body, and these, being in 
reality vacancies caused by effluxion of time, it almost ad- 
