The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4116, 30 September 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1884.

The ago of wooden nutmegs has not passed away. Keen competition in all walks of life in every part of the world has froepaontly resulted in tho honest trader going to the wall, while the man to whom no trick of defrauding bis fellow man is too mean revels in luxury. The manufacture of "shoddy" of all kinds has been elevated to that of a fine art. Tho silks that clothe tho backs of well-dressed ladies arc very often innocent of the material they are supposed to be made from, in fact silk shows in a wonderful maimer how art has triumphed by producing an article so good that few save the best experts can tell the genuine from tho spurious article. Silk year by year—the real article, wo meanlias been getting scarcer, the demanel for it has increased, and yet in tho face of those two facts the price of a silk dress has steadily decreased because of the perfection to which the art of making a substitute so like the real article has been carried. English calicoes used to secure a worldwide market because of their stoutness combined with price. To-day the stoutness may simply mean the epiantity of "filling" they havo received. Year by year the phylloxera has been reducing tho wino crop of Franco till the brandy made there can do little more than supply its own inhabitants, but the export continues as large as ever, as the chemist has beaten Nature out of the field by supplying an article which to all but cultivated palates is superior to that made from grapes, and of course can be produced at less money, and thus enable the dealers in the article to command their own prices and profits. With tho rage for light furniture wo havo combined the arts of coloring and vsneering till to-day the solid article of our ancestors can only bo found in out-of-the-way places, is pooh-poohed as out of date, clumsy, inartistic, and venerable. The march of science has gone on—our foods are prepared for us from all sorts of ingredients, anything will do provided it is not what it is represented to be, that seems the only disqualification. Our teas, coffees, cocoas, with all their attendant followers of extracts and essences, are so many misnomers. Very often the public want an article at a price at which it cannot be produced, but that is no deterrent to its being supplied. Our condiments suffer in the same way ; our pickles, mustards, peppers, and spices of all sorts are not what they are supposed to be. So it goes on through everything that enters into our households, whether for our internal comfort in our homes, to be worn on our backs, or to supply us with the necessaries which enable us to live. _ We are duped at every turn, deception is on every hand, and tho men who rule tho roast, who thrive on their villainies are looked up to and respected. We become teetotallers, and the bitters and "soft stuff" we put faith in are " steeped in cheap alcohol." We abstain from tea, coffee, &c., and take to milk instead, and even that is not pure, if it be be not adulterated it is diluted with water. Flaws are everywhere, cracks are smoothed over, blemishes are obliterated, anel we live on deceived and deceiving. Amid it all. we thrive, till it seems as if tho ago of deception had become also the age of longevity. We havo j_ot to such a stage that it almost seems a pity to suggest that this fraudulcncy should bo stopped and unmasked, till it seems as if it would be of no use to say we ought to return to purity and simplicity once more. Adulteration has become so general, so universal, so enticing, that to talk of amending our ways seems ridiculous and impossible. Still, we hold the attempt should be made, and to Government we must look for the starting point of relief, for a return to ways that are respectable and ends that are decent. Wo must begin by getting Government to insist on seeing that what what comes through our Custom-house shall be pure and what it is represented to be. Spurious articles must be stopped from going into consumption, for it is undeniable that by far the greater portion of the adulterated articles that go into consumption are " shot" into the country as rubbish on a heap. It is the skilful foreigner that supplies us with the articles that arc not

what they seem. It is tho outsider who has vitiated and is vitiating our taste every day, and their depredations must be put a stop to. A capital commencement might bo made by prohibiting all but genuine liquors of good quality being taken out of bond. Analyses might be made of articles of food sent here, aud those that were either hurtful or not of a specific purity should be returned to whence they came. Purity of this sort is not to be got in a day, but unless we make a commencement somewhere, and that speedily, the day is not far dis-\ taut when we will either have such a crop of vested interests to face, or palates so unaccustomed to a genuine article, that we will not be disposed to demand that our foods and liquors, leaving other things out of tho reckoning, should be of a sterling quality and possessed of some Hall mark of authenticity. With many things that we should like to see dealt with in a similar manner it is difficult to say how that is to be accomplished. Brummagem jewellery cannot be altogether excluded, so that the unwary may not be taken in. That may serve as one of the examples of things that must be left to themselves, as an instance of an article that a Government cannot interfere with or prohibit from bein"- imported. But that our foods and drinks should be genuine, and not deleterious or hurtful to health, we think it one of the duties of the State to see to. We must look to the State in such articles to ensure their purity, because the individual, even if capable of judging of such himself, is powerless to force on a reform. Here there is work for a reformer, but for which no greater reward than that of the benedictions of the community will be secured. Who is willing to take up the subject and follow it up till success has been achieved, till purity is triumphant, and adulteration and deception have been stamped out as abominable frauds ?