THE STAFF OF LIFE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 499, 10 November 1871, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE STAFF OF LIFE.

A Bill entitled the “ Millers’ and Rakers’ Bill ” has passed through all its readings and preliminary stages in the House of Representatives and will on receiving the Yice-Regal assent thereto, come into operation in New Zealand on the Ist of January, 1872. The Bill provides that, all bread made for sale, or sold, or exposed for sale, shall be made of pure and sound flour, or meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas, beans, rice or potatoes, or any of them, or with any salt, pure water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potatoe, or other yeast, and mixed in such proportions as may he thought fit, and with no other ingredient or matter whatever

Provision is made for the infliction of a penalty ot not less than forty shillings, or more than ffin pounds, in each case where the bread is not well made, or where any alum or ingredient, not belore specified, shall be used in the making of bread. AH bread made with more than one kind of flour shall be called “ mixed bread," and be marked with a large Roman M. A penalty of ten shillings is to be imposed for every pound of broad sold without this condition being observed. All bread, with the exception of French rolls and fancy bread, is to be sold by avoirdupois weight, and penalties are provided for infraction of this portion of the measure. Every baker or seller of bread must have fixed, in some conspicuous part of the shop, on or near the counter, a beam and scales, with proper weights, or other sufficient balance, in order that the bread may be weighed in the presence of the purchaser, under the penalty of five pounds. Any baker or seller of bread, or any person employed by the same, who shall cany out bread for sale, must ; Iways carry a correct beam and scales, with proper weights, etc., and a penalty, not exceeding five pounds, will be imposed for each infraction of this clause.

Any baker or confectioner who shall wilfully or knowingly have upon his premises any impure, unsound, or unwholesome flour, or shall sell, or offer to sell, any bread, nr dough for bread or biscuit, or c mfectionery containing any such flour, shall, on conviction before two or more justices, forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding twenty pouns; and such bread, dough, bread, biscuit, confectionery, or flour may be seized and confiscated, and may be disposed of at the discretion of the justices. Any person convicted of adulterating corn-meal or Hour shall, for each offence, be fined nob less than five, or more than twenty pounds. Any inspector or authorised person, acting under a warrant signed by a justice of the peace, may search the premises of any baker or miller for the purpose of determining if any ingredients not allowed by the Act are being used in the adulteration of flour or bread. Authority is given to seize any adulterated substance, which may afterwards be disposed of at the discretion of the justice. Heavy penalties are imposed on any person in the trades mentioned in the Act who has on his premises ingredients or mixtures for the purpose of adulteration ; and any one who obstructs any authorised person when engaged in searching, will be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds. All penalties are to be recovered in a summary way, and any person convicted a second time under the Act will have his name, place of abode, offence and the penalty imposed published in such newspaper as may be decided upon by the justices, at the expense of the offender.