THE ADULTERATION ACT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 137, 9 May 1884, Page 2

THE ADULTERATION ACT.

"Referring to the prosecution under the Adulteration Act reported elsewhere, the Wairarapa Daily observes that we have reaped the first fruits of the new Adulteration Act m the Wairarapa by the conviction of an up country publican who put three per cent more water than the law allows into a pint of whisky. The Legislative mountain has been m labor fixing a standard for our nips and has brought forth this mouse. A pint of whisky was sold to the police department at the trade price of four shillings, but from the evidence of the local representative of the force, it actually cost the Government eight pound exclusive of the expense of analysis which was not included m the schedule. That the public money should be wasted m making such discoveries is to be lamented. We had recently the evidence of a veilknown M.H.R. to show that villainous spirits that must have been a mass of adulteration have been imported m large quantities into New Zealand. Now, we would not grudge eight pounds or oven eit?l»ty to detect and punish a crime of this character, but to pay eight pounds and possibly more m order to prove that a publican has an extra thimbh-fiil of harmless water m a whisky bottle is altogether too absurd. If the Act will only catch gnats of this character and yet pa^s camels, the sooner it is repealed the better. Our New Zealand Parliament is singularly unfortunate m its soc ; al and sanitary legislation. Whenever its measures come into actual operation they seem to miss the mark for which they were designed. If there is any use at all m a public analysis of hotel liquor, it certainly does not lie m revealing the per centage of water which it contains. Everyone who is at all familiar with the taste of spirits can tell this without a certificate from the Government laboratory. What the public require to know is to be told when any deleterious admixture is present m their grog. At this stage — at m fact the vital pomt — the Government analysis proves a decided failure. We trust the Colonial Treasurer will object m he present state of the finances of he colony to spend eight pounds again m procuring a pine of liquor containing 97 pe v cent of statutory whisky and 3 per cent of pure water. Such investments do not pay and the s-ooner they are dropped the better. AVhen Parliament meets perhaps some inquisitivft member will want to know how many hundreds of pint lottles of spirits have been bought out of the public purse, and how much per bottle they cost. We Iv&vjh evidence that the Whareaina samples amounted on an average to one pound ieven shillings and sixpence per bottle. Jf the police department are conductirg their raid on this wcale the Bill lor working the Adulteration Act will run into many hundreds? of pounds, and the beuefit will be nil. Wo do not know whether all the good whisky that goes into the Government laboratory is wasted m scientific researches as to the percentage of water it contains, or whether, after undergoing a course of purification, it is used as a stimulant by the department which collects it. If the latter be the case, the zeal of the central bureau m hunting for samples may be excused.