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Hague on the twenty-third day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twelve, and to regulate the importation into and the storage and disposal of opium, morphine, and similar drugs in the Colony of Fiji."
2. I enclose a certificate* and a report on the Ordinance by Mr. A. K. Young, the Attorney-General.
3. I shall be glad to be informed when it is desired that the Ordinance should be brought into operation.
I have, &c.,
BICKHAM ESCOTT,
Governor.
Enclosure 3 in No. 202.
REPORT ON ORDINANCE No. 1 of 1914.
AN ORDINANCE to give effect to the Measures decided upon in the International Opium Convention signed at the Hague on the Twenty-third day of January One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twelve and to Regulate the Importation into and the Storage and Disposal of Opium, Morphine, Cocaine and similar Drugs in the Colony of Fiji.
This Ordinance gives effect to the measures decided upon by the International Opium Convention, signed at the Hague on the 23rd January, 1912, for regulating the importation and the storage and disposal of opium, morphine, cocaine, and similar drugs, and fulfils the obligations of the Colony in this respect. The Ordi- nance is in substitution for a Bill submitted to the Legislative Council which had been modelled on the lines of a Bill approved for the Gold Coast Colony
1912.
2. The original Bill was the subject of a lengthy debate in Council, and after reference to, and report by, a Select Committee of the Council, was withdrawn. The present Ordinance embodies the recommendations of the Committee; Sections 8, 9, and 10 give effect to those recommendations.
3. Section 8 permits of the withdrawal of opium from a store by a hospital attendant of a plantation hospital, if authorised by the Chief Medical Officer; the reason for this concession being that licensed druggists throughout the Colony are very few in number. In accordance with the Secretary of State's Circular despatch of the 27th December, 1913, veterinary surgeons have been added to the class of persons authorised to withdraw opium from a store.
4. Section 9 authorises the sale of laudanum and chlorodyne by the holder of a store licence; in the case of the former the quantity is limited at any one time to Both one half ounce, and in the case of the latter to a bottle containing one ounce. of the drugs mentioned are regarded in Fiji as household remedies, and to prohibit their sale by stores would entail considerable hardship in outlying country districts where no licensed druggists are to be found,
5. Section 10 has been so framed as to allay any apprehension that might be felt on the ground that purchasers of opium in the authorised manner when found
in possession would be liable to prosecution.
6. The Ordinance was passed in the form approved by the Secretary of State
in his despatch, No. 332, of 8th October, 1913.
Dated this 28th day of September, 1914.
Attorney-General's Chambers,
A. K. YOUNG,
Attorney-General.
Suva.
• Not reprinted.
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