March. 16, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
757 
powers and obligations prescribed in it are proposed to 
be vested in the “ local authority,” or the persons autho¬ 
rized to carry out the act in each district, and the 
“ central authority,” or the Local Government Board, as 
constituted by the Local Government Board Act, 1871. 
Clause 57 obliges the local authorities to appoint 
such officers as are necessary and proper for the efficient 
execution of the Act, and to make bye-laws regulating' 
their duties. These officers are to be removable by the 
local authority, subject in the case of surveyor or local 
inspector to the approval of the central authority. 
Clause 58 prescribes that the local authority shall 
appoint one or more qualified medical practitioners as 
medical officers of health, whose appointments, removal 
and remuneration are to be subject to the approval of 
the central authority. 
Clause 59 permits the appointment of poor-law district 
medical officers to this office, and clause 60 enacts that 
it shall be the duty of medical officers of health and 
local inspectors to supply necessary information to the 
local authority, and to furnish such reports as the cen¬ 
tral authority may from time to time call for. Medical 
officers of health are also empowered at their discretion, 
to exercise the powers of local inspectors. 
Clauses 119 to 126 refer to the quality of the water 
supply as follows : — 
119. The water supplied in every district, whether by 
the local authority itself or by any waterworks company, 
shall be effectually filtered, according to the best-known 
mode of filtration to be from time to time appointed to 
be used by the central authority, and shall, as to purity, 
be in accordance with the conditions in the schedule (C.j* 
to this Act annexed, or with such other conditions as 
may from time to time bo approved by the central 
authority. 
120. There shall be one or more water analysts, being 
•competent and impartial persons, from time to time 
appointed by and removable by the central authority. 
There shall be paid to each such water analyst such re¬ 
muneration by each local authority and company supply¬ 
ing the water, as the central authority shall determine. 
The water analyst shall, when and as he shall be 
required by the central ^authority, but not less often 
than once in each month) analyse the quality of water 
supplied by each local authority and company, and in 
the event of the same being ascertained to be defective 
in any particular, he shall forthwith give notice thereof 
to the local authority or company supplying the same. 
121. Any local authority or company may, if they 
think fit, on each occasion of the analysis of water sup¬ 
plied by them, be represented by some officer, but such 
•officer shall not interfere in the making of such analysis. 
122. Each water analyst shall on each occasion of his 
making such analyses forthwith make and deliver a report 
of the result of the analysis so made by him to the central 
authority, and to each local authority or water company 
to which the same relate; and the books kept by a water 
analyst for recording the results of the analyses by him 
.shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspection of 
any local authority or company without payment. 
123. Each local authority or water company shall 
forthwith make and deliver a full and true copy of each 
such report to the local authority of every district within 
which they supply water. 
124. Every local authority within whose district water 
is supplied either by themselves or by any other local 
authority, or by any water company, shall provide and 
keep at their office proper books to be approved by the 
■central authority, for recording the results of such ana¬ 
lyses, and every such report shall forthwith be duly en¬ 
tered therein, and such books shall be open to the 
inspection of any ratepayer or water consumer at all 
reasonable times without payment. 
125. The statements in any report of the water ana¬ 
lyst as to the amount and kind of the impurity of the 
water supplied by any local authority or company shall 
be taken as prima facie evidence of such impurity on the 
day when such analysis was made. 
126. It during - the water supplied by any 
local authority or company is as to purity not in ac- 
coi dance with the conditions for the time being - in 
foice under this Act, such local authority or company 
shall in every such case be liable to a penalty not exceed- 
^ n o fifty pounds, unless the company can prove that such 
detect in purity was caused by unavoidable accident: 
Provided always, that nothing in this section contained 
shall relieve the local authority from liability to any 
other proceedings under this or any other Act of Parlia¬ 
ment. 
THE SALE OF POISONS IN NEW ZEALAND. 
The following “ Act to make further and better pro¬ 
vision for regulating the Sale and Keeping of certain 
Toisons ” has passed the New Zealand Legislature :— 
Whereas it is expedient for the safety of the public 
that further and better provision should be made for re¬ 
gulating the sale of poisons, and that persons keeping 
open shop for the retailing, dispensing, or compounding 
of poisons should be registered in the manner herein 
provided: 
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of New Zea¬ 
land in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of 
the same as follows:— 
1. The short title of this Act shall be “The Sale of 
Poisons Act, 1871.” 
2. “The Sale of Poisons Act, 1866,”* shall from and 
after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-one, be repealed, but this 
repeal shall not interfere with the institution or prosecu¬ 
tion of any proceeding in respect of any offence com¬ 
mitted against, or any penalty incurred under the said 
Act, but the same may be instituted and prosecuted as if 
this Act had not been passed. 
3. The several articles named or described in the first 
schedule hereto shall be deemed to be poisons within the 
meaning of this Act, and the Governor by order in 
Council may from time to time declare that any article 
in such order named shall be deemed a poison within the 
meaning of this Act, and such order shall be advertised 
in the New Zealand Gazette , and on the expiration of three 
months from such advertisement, the article named in 
such resolution shall be deemed to be a poison within 
the meaning of this Act. 
4. From and after the thirty-first day of December, 
one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, it shall be 
unlawful for any person to sell or keep open shop for 
retailing, dispensing, or compounding poisons in any 
part of New Zealand, unless such person shall be regis¬ 
tered under this Act in the register kept under this Act 
for the province or other division in which he so sells or 
keeps open shop, and conform to such regulations, as to 
the keeping, dispensing, and selling of such poisons as 
may from time to time be prescribed by the Governor in 
Council, which regulations the Governor in Council is 
hereby authorized from time to time to make, and to vary 
or rescind as may seem expedient. 
5. The Governor may from time to time by warrant 
under his hand, appoint for each province or other divi¬ 
sion of the colony, a person to be registrar under this 
Act, and may at any time remove any person so ap¬ 
pointed, and appoint another in his place. Each regis¬ 
trar shall have an office at such town or place as the 
governor may from time to time direct, and at such office 
he shall keep the register for the province or other divi¬ 
sion for which he is appointed. 
* We have been unable up to the present time to ascertain 
the character of this Act.—Bn. Puaum. Jouux. 
* This schedule is, at present, a blank.—E d. Pn. Joukn. 
