H.—3l.

APPENDIX A.

OUTLINE OF HEALTH ADMINISTRATION IN NEW ZEALAND. The Acts administered by the Health Department: — 1. Health Act, 1920. 2. Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, 1926. 3. Food and Drugs Act, 1908. 4. Dangerous Drugs Act, 1927. 5. Poisons Act, 1934. 6. Nurses and Midwives Registration Act, 1925. 7. Medical Practitioners Act, 1914. 8. Medical Act, 1908. 9. Masseurs Registration Act, 1920. 10. Plumbers Registration Act, 1912. 11. Opticians Act, 1928. 12. Dentists Act, 1936. 13. Quackery Prevention Act, 1908. 14. Cemeteries Act, 1908. 15. Social Hygiene Act, 1917. The Health Department was established by the Public Health Act of 1900. Its activities in the early stages were confined to environment hygiene and fell far short of the present conception ol a Department of Health as a co-ordinating power in regard to preventive and curative medicine. Important dates in the development of the Department were : 1907, when the Sale of Food and Drugs Act was passed. 1909, when the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act was passed bringing under Hospital Boards functions previously administered by Charitable-aid Boards and separate semi-voluntary institutions. (In this same year the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Department, which formerly had been an entirely separate Department of State dealing with the administration of hospital and charitable insitiutions and private hospitals and the control of nurses and midwives, was amalgamated with the Public Health Department.) 1911, when the administration of the Native Medical Service was transferred from the Native Department to the Health Department. 1913 when the scheme for medical inspection of school-children was first put into being under the Education Department. (In 1921 this work, along with the then recently established School Dental Service, was transferred to the Health Department.) 1915, when the Medical Practitioners Act, dealing with the registration and control of medical practitioners, came into force. 1920, when the present Health Act was passed which consolidated the position as then attained and also extended the powers and functions of the Department in certain directions. Since 1920 there have been a succession of Acts dealing with the training, registration, and control of various professional groups, including medical practitioners, dentists, nurses and midwives, masseurs, and opticians. In the administration of these Acts the Department is assisted by Boards containing representatives of the respective professions. The effect of all this legislation has been increasing co-ordination of all the health services of the Dominion, both preventive and curative. Under the Health Act, 1920, control of health matters was vested in the Department of Health. A Board of Health was appointed under the chairmanship of the Minister, consisting of representatives of the Department, the medical profession, the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Otago, the Municipal Association, the Counties Association, Hospital Boards, and Civil Lngineers ? together with a representative of the interests of women and children, 9—H. 31.

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