The Southland Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1538, 16 February 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1872.

Bakebs and millers are interested in knowing that an Act to regulate the sale of bread and to prevent bhe adulteration of meal and flour came into force on the first day of the present year. Its provisions are as follows : — Clause four enacts that all bread made for sale or sold or exposed for sale within any part of New Zealand must be made of pure and sound flour, or meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, corn, peas, beans, rice, or,potatoes, or any of them, with any common salt, pure water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato or other yeast, mixed in such proportions as may be thought fife, but with no other ingredient or other matter whatsoever. After providing that the several sorts of bread which shall be made for sale orsold or exposed for sale shall always be well made, aud no alum or ! mixture in which alum shall be an ingredient used, or any other mixture or ingredient whatsoever other than and except as therein mentioned, under a penalty not exceeding £10, or less than 40s, the several classes of bread are enumerated. The first class includes what is denominated standard wheaten j bread. Its admixtures are wheat flour, ,which is the whole produce of the grain, the bran or hull only excepted, without any mixture or division. The second class is designated household wheaten I bread, and may contain a portion of the ' bran or hull. It is also enacted that in ! this class every loaf must be marked with ! a large Roman " H." The third class is | called mixed bread, and includes all bread made wholly or partially of the flour of any other sort of corn or grain than that of wheat, or of the meal or flour of any j peas, beans, or potatoes. This class of loaf must be marked with an "M." Clause nine provides a penalty of 10s for the sale of bread notbeing properly marked as therein provided. By clause ten it is enacted that all bread shall be sold by weight, and not otherwise, and may be made of such weight or size as the bakers or sellers shall think fit, and in the case of its being sold in any other manner than by weight, then in such case the baker or seller shall for every such offence forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £2. Bread usually sold under the denomination of fancy bread or rolls, is expressly excepted from this clause. In weighing bread, the avoirdupois standard of sixteen ounces to the pound, and the several gradations thereof, for the j sale of less than one pound, must be used, in default thereof, a penalty not exceeding £5 and not less than 5s is provided. "Clause twelve makes it imperative on the baker or vendor of bread to weigh the same in the presence of the purchaser if requested so to do, and in default, a penalty not exceeding £5 is enacted. In furtherance of that provision the vendor is bound to have fixed in i some conspicuous part of his shop, on or near the counter, a beam and scales, i with proper weights. Parties neglecting to do so, or making use of false beams or scales, or balance, or any false weight, not being of the weight it purports to be, according to the aforesaid standard, shall for every fiuch offence, forfeit a sum not exceeding £5. The fourteenth clause : of tne Act refers to bread made of unwholesome flour. If any baker or confectioner shrmld " wilfully or knowingly" have upon the premises used by I him in his trade impure, unsound, or unj wholesome flour, or if he should sell any bread, &i., made of such flour, he may be fined on conviction before two Justices any sum not exceeding £20, and the unwholesome or adulterated articles may be confiscated. The millera are also stringently looked after in the Act. The penalty for adulterating meal or flour, or i for belling flour of one sort of corn as i

\ the flour of another sort, is any sum not exceeding £20 nor less than £5. Any Justice, or any constable authorised by warrant under the hand of a Justice, can at "seasonable times in the daytime," enter into any house or premises occupied by millers, bakers, and others, to search and examine for the purpose of discovering whether any offence has been committed, and the usual penalties for obstructing such search are specified. All offences under this Act may be disposed of in a summary way, and all fines and awards imposed will be divided — one moiety to go to the consolidated fund, and the other moiety to the use of the informer or party prosecuting. If any person shall be twice convicted, it shall be lawful for the Justices to cause the offender's name, place of abode, and offence to be published, at the expense of the offender, in a newspaper in the district. No information can be laid except within the space of three days of the offence being committed ; and no conviction can be removed into the Supreme Court. The last clause protects Justices of the Peace and officers from any action or suit for any matter or thing done in pursuance of the Act.