"Forty-rod" Whisky.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 371, 18 June 1903, Page 5

"Forty- rod" Whisky.

The London " Daily Telegraph " is responsible for the following, given on the authority of a Government official;. ~ u In one year over three millions of gallons of the foulest spirit—only fit for, methylation—were imported from Germany, of which two-thirds, costing from 5d to lid a gallon, were admittedly used for drinking. It is not only from abroad that this miserable, destructive stuff is imported. In this country a spirit is distilled from damaged Indian corn, or from decomposed molasses, the dregs of the sugar refineries, which is mixed with the real thing, and sold across the counter as "genuine Scotch " or "Irish." Very often not more than one cask of real Scotch or Irish goes to make up the blend ; the rest, in aoy proportion that the blender likes—3o, 40, or 50 casks —being composed of this " fiery stuff" '■• There is something radically and reformaWy wrong," says the "Telegraph," " when a Government official can tell us of the following case, of which he had direct cognisance. ' Spirit of a very low class,' he says, ' made in England, was warehoused in a Government warehouse in Scotland, and there simply coloured (not a drop of Scotch added), made up into small pocket-flasks, and then labelled " Fine Old Scotch." But this was not all. A chemist's certificate of analysis was affixed, vouching for its mellowness, and all the good qualities which it did not possess. It was then sent out to one of our colonies to a publican, who receives periodical consignments, I believe, up to this day.' "