NEW ZEALAND HONEY.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17170, 30 March 1927, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND HONEY.

UNSOLICITED TRIBUTL. GIVEN BY A GERMAN COURT. AUCKLAND, March 25. Bee Kultur and Bee Culture went to law at Frieburg in Brunswick, Germany, early this year, as a result of the German Union of Beekeepers, Neumunster, hecoming piqued at the methods adopted by a Freiburg merchant, Paul Waetzel, to push the sale of New Zealand honey. The judgment of the county court at Freiburg, which was received yesterday by Mr John Rentoul, managing director of the New Zealand Co-operative Honey Producers' Association, discloses two interesting comparisons with Germany, that New Zealand's legal methods are rauch the same, and its honey a great d*eal better. The cause of the trouble was a series of advertisements published by Waetzel, to the effect that (1) New Zealand honey is the best bee honey and the best flower honey in the world; (2) centrifugal honey (the German type) contains in some cases up to 70 per cent. of cane sugar and is therefore inferior value; (3) German honey, which is mixed with sugar, is heated up again and suffers in value owing to overheating;^ (4) only honey with a soft, thick, creamy consistency, as shown by New Zealand honey and not the viscid honey (German) like syrup, is genuine mature flower honey, and New Zealand honey is the most valuable on the iworld mafket; (5) New Zealand honey is shipped under official supervision only. It was for an injunction that the peeved German producers of honey moved. There is a homelike appearance in the mass of documents that- accumu- ! lated between the first indignation ■ meeting of incensed beekeepers and : the final judgment of the Chamber of C'ommercial Cases of the County Court at Freiburg. After a thorough examination of "expert witnesses," and "exhibits,"1 three judges decided that the claims for New Zealand honey had been partly established. The judgment is a tribute to New Zealand honey and an unsolicited testimoni,al to Mr Waetzel as a live business man. The advertisemeuts, the jqdgment says have ibeen cleverly \^orded. The Court thought it was not considerate of Waetzel to startle the women of Brunswick with the information that German centrifugal honey, having s_o much cane sugar, gave rise to rheumatism and gout, but as to calling New Zealand honey the "best" honey, that was a matter of taste dr of custom. As in British Courts, the Qermans apparentiy" have their "authorities," for the judges indicate that one has only to refer to Rosenthal V.W.G. paragr.aph 3, judgment 18, to find that the only prohihition of the word "best" is in its application to. gqpds obviously of inferior value. "New Zealand honey, however, cannot be regarded as being honey of inferior valub," the judges add. "According to one analysis it is absolutely pure bee honey of the best character." Except in securing an order preventing Waetzel from warning wise | folk who read newspaper advertisements that, like the alcohol of America, the honey of Germany is of the wood genus, the German XJnion of Beekeepers iost their case.