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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5393, 10 July 1878, Page 2

We live in an age of excessive,competition in every industrial branch of the business of the world, and it has become an admitted and accepted fact that the ordinary margin of profits has been thereby so narrowed that short measures, light weights, and adulteration of products too often follow as a necessary or inevitable consequence. Against the evils of the system which may arise in this colony the Legislature has been careful as far as possible to guard, and has supplied the necessary machinery for the detection and punishment of offenders ; and it has from time to -time amended that machinery in those points in which experience showed it to be defective. Adulterations of food and drink are those which more directly touch the whole people, and with the legal machinery now existing, and with the intelligent concurrence of those who are so directly interested, the evil where it exists might be greatly mitigated, it not completely obviated; The laws to which we refer are the Bakers and Millers Act, 1871, and the Sale of Food and Drugs Act passed in the last session of the General Assembly. The Bakers and Millers Act defined the different kinds of bread, as standard wheaten bread, household whoaten bread, and mixed bread, and required that the two latter, when offered for sale, should bo marked respectively with the large Roman latter. H. and M., as indicating their quality. The standard wheaten bread is defined- to be bread made of the flour of wheat, which flour, without any admixture or division, shall bo the whole product of the grain, the bran thereof only excepted. The household bread is that made of meal in which a portion of the bran shall have been retained. The mixed bread is that made for sale wholly or partially of the flour of any other sort of corn than wheat, or of the meal or flour of peas, beans, or potatoes. The Act provides that all broad, except fancy broad, shall be sold by weight only, and it imposes, bn the baker or seller of bread the duty of having in some conspicuous part of the shop, on or near the counter, proper scales and weights for the purpose of weighing the bread sold, if the purchaser shall desire it. ■ The use of unwholesome flour is prohibited, and power is.given under proper, authority to examine shops and bakeries for the purposes of the Act. Penalties are imposed for breach of all or any of the foregoing provisions, and it is enacted that if anyone shall be convicted a second time for any breach of the law, his name, place of abode, and offence shall be advertised in the newspapers at the . expense of the, offender. The effective carrying out of the provisions of this law is really dependent upon the action of the purchasers or consumers for whose protootion.it is intended. It is found in practice that its usefulness is limited by the indifference or carelessness of those who are most immediately concerned. At any rate,, the occurrence of legal proceedings under the Bakers and Millers Act is exceedingly rare, and it may : fairly be assumed, therefore, that it has in a great measure accomplished the object in view. The provisions of the Sale of Food and Drags Act were undofsto'od to be intended

mainly to put a stop to the' adulteration of drink of all-kinds, which it was alleged had, in this colony, been carried to a very pernicious extent. So far as has yet been ascertained, the statements appear to have been greatly exaggerated. It has been found that the principal addition made to the drinks was in the harmless form of . water. We have, however, .had many complaints, chiefly from distant country places, where natives are. numerous, and generally, as they unfortunatelyare, goodcustomers—of the badquality of the liquors with which they are supplied. The Act defines the word “food" ns including every article used •for food or drink by man, other than drugs., It enacts that any person who shall be found guilty of mixing with any article of food or drink any poisonous ingredient shall pay a penalty for the first offence of any sum not exceeding fifty pounds, and" for a second offence shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and it enacts further that any person offering‘ for .sale any article of fond or drink, which to the knowledge of such person has been adulterated, shall be liable to a penally not exceeding £2O, and, upon a second conviction, to be publicly advertised as an offender in addition. It is also provided that that any person who shall sell any article of food or drink which shall be mixed with any other substance with intent fraudulently to increase its weight or bulk, and who shall not declare such admixture to any purchaser thereof, shall be deemed to have sold an adulterated article under the Act. For the purposes of carrying out . the provisions of this Act professional analysts have been recently appointed by the Government at the principal centres of population, viz., Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland ; in .Wellington we assume that Dr. Hector would be the analyst ex-officio. Every Inspector of Nuisances or Inspector of Weights and Measures is required, at the instance of any-person having reasonable cause to suspect any article, of food or drink or druga to be adulterated, to procure samples of such articles, to submit them for analysis, and, if necessary, to take proceedings against the offenders. .We have called attention to the existence of these Acts with the view of making their provisions more generally known, and of showing that, in order to their-being made effective, the concurrence and assistance of the people who are most interested are required, and that without that concurrence and assistance they are likely to remain inoperative, although not, probably, wholly ineffective.