THE ADULTERATION PREVENTION ACT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1136, 8 February 1884, Page 2

THE ADULTERATION PREVENTION ACT.

In the Resident Magistrate’s Court, Clyde, on Thursday last, the 7th inst..before Jackson Reddell, Esq., R.M., J. S. Dickie and George Murray, hotelkeepers, Clyde, were separately charged under the Adulteration Prevention Acts, 1880 and 1883, and the Licensing Act, 1881, with selling certain liquors, to wit brandy, with which was mixed a material injurious to health, viz, tannin. The evidence in each esse was the same, and was confined to the Sergeant of Police, who proved having purchased from each of the parties a pint of brandy, whiskey, and gin ; and to that of Professor James Blank, the Government Analyst, who deposed that the samp.es of brandy was not de facto brandy,as liquor of that name, was distilled from wine made from th- grape, whereas the sample was what was known as British brandy, and was not made from tht, grape, but was made from whbkey. Fu ther that the sample on analysis be ft und to contain tannin of a character different, to oak tannin, and as tannin was not a component part of brandy, indeed an extraneous substance, and, moreover, as he knew that tannin was injurious to health he had r oorted accordingly. In cross ex' animation by Mr F. J. Wilson, solicit or, who conducted the defence of both cast s Prof. ssor Black said that the quantity of tannin in the samples was in scarcely approciahle quantities ; that he could not disiinguish it from that of tea ; that it was natural to tea, and that in a glass of the spirits there was no greater quantity than there would he in a glass of strong tea • indeed th t if the tea was boi'e 1 it would bo Stronger in tannin than was the spirit. The spirit as sold wasmjui ions+o health generally from its astringent properties, but in other cases as in diarrhoea it would be beneficial • in normal health tannin produces constipation. In genuine brandy there is no tannin. I have come across genuine brandy at a guinea a bottle. The spirit analysed may be a brandy of commerce, but it is not brandy, it is 10 or 12 degrees under proof The brandy is similar to a brandy I analysed for, and at the request of Neill Bros., merchants of Dunedin. By the Inspector of Police : Tannin is not a necessary ingredient in brandy, it is an extraneous substance. By the Bench • Brandy, according to the text books, is distilled from wine from the grape, and free from any other substance. I find j n my experience that fully two thirds of the spirit called brandy and the article of commerce is but an imitation.

Mr Wilson for the defence, contended : In the first place, that the prosecutions mils’-, fail, as the word brandy was not used in the Act, the word spirits only being used ; secondly, that as m accordance with Piofessor Black's evidence the foreign and deletereous substance contained in the brandy analysed was only tannin, similar to that from tea, and that its qualities were purely astringent, the Act never contemplated such an offence.

The Bench, in summing up, said the defendants were entitled to any doubts that might arise in his mind, and as, he had v- ery grave doubts from the meagre interpretations as to whether the Act did contemplate such as had been deposed to, as an offence, he would dismiss both informations.