MILK ADULTERATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 19, 14 May 1914, Page 2

MILK ADULTERATION.

PRODUCER HEAVILY FINED. Wellington, May 13. “Fined £20,” was the decision of Mr Cooper, S.M., at the Upper Hutt Magistrate’s Court to-day, when convicting William Collett on a charge of selling milk adulterated with water. In giving evidence on his own behalf, defendant denied putting water in the milk. He said he remembered placing the can in the cooler, and suggested that water had found its way into the' can in this way. He had been in the milk business for 15 years, and had never been in trouble previously. He strongly commented upon the carriage of cans in the train, contending that, they were so badly knocked about that water was always liable to get into the milk. In inflicting the fine, with the addition of 35s costs, the Magistrate said that through defendant’s action a firm in town had been charged the other day with selling adulterated milk and would have been heavily fined but for the fact that milk was tested between the railway station and the vendor’s shop. He therefore felt justified in making the penalty a heavy one. The Magistrate intimated that ho could not make a reduction in the fine, for which, however, Collett could apply to the Department,