The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 1. TRICKS OF THE TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 1 April 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 1. TRICKS OF THE TRADE.

There are tricks in every trade—except the trade the gentle reader happens to be engaged in—and the average person lives in a state of delusion. "Things are not what they seem," as is so constantly proved in matter-of-fact courts of law. For instance, it was lately proved in the South that three-pennyworth of "beauty balm," or something of the kind, was sold for five shillings. These are the days of thick bottles and false bottoms, adulteration, short weight—every means for extracting much money for little value. The authorities even in England —where there is supposed to be more honesty to the square foot than anywhere else—have almost decided that people must get what they pay for, that a pound must be a pound and a pint a pint, and so on. It will rejoice every tradesman in New Zealand—all being perfectly honest that innumerable frauds have lately been discovered in England in relation to the people's food, its quantity and quality. In the Old Country the purchaser of the common loaf may have it weighed over the counter. If it is short of the two pounds, he may get the weight made up. It is possible that the custom is not prevalent in New Zealand owing to the unquestionable honesty of every bread-seller in the Dominion. The housewife is so sure that the baker does not want to make a fortune that she simply takes the weight for granted. There is. we believe, a law lying somewhere in a pigeon-hole that each loaf shall be branded with the weight. Perhaps the microscopes in the hands of housewives are not of sufficient power to detect the figure "2." Some interfering English persons have lately been buying bread all over the country and finding thousands of loaves underweight. If the general public docs not "squeak," why shouldn't they be exploited? Then these persons have made assertions that the average "pint" of milk is small for its age and owes its richness to other agencies than cow—a state of thing.? impossible in New Zealand, where everybody gives over measure, and formalin, boric acid, and "the cow that doesn't chew the cud" have not yet been discovered. In the matter of the ordinary "pound" of butter, it has been discovered in base old England that, as it is not branded "one pound," it. is generally short of that weight, but that the price paid is for sixteen ounces. In New Zealand, although the weight on a parcel of butter is not stated, one knows, of course, without reference to scales, that the native honesty of everybody is the protection of the public. The Enclish person, it has been discovered, has been paying for the moisture that has evaporated from his pat; of butter. Why shouldn't he pay for atmosphere? Thousands nf folk in Britain banquet on the delectable luxuries to be found in great variety in pork butchers' shops. Even I in this class of goods it has been proved f that <i large proportion of such things ]'

as ''meat" sausages, "meat" brawn, "meat" German sausage, owe a great deal of their bulk to pulverised bread or cereal food of some kind. Cereal food may be very good for folk, but nobody—at least in England—tells the honsewife, "This sausage is seventy-five per cent, cereal and the rest meat." It would be impossible to persuade a New Plymouth vendor of such comestibles to adopt this I English practice. Ask him, and see how ' angry he becomes at the mere suggestion. As for the "reputed" pint in a bottle with three inches of false bottom, and the bottled dainties that are contained in vessels carefully and deceptively thickened in 'the glass factory—why shouldn't English people pay for glass when they ask for peas or plums? We ought to thank our lucky stars that no one ever tries to exploit the New Zealand public in this atrocious way. The interfering folks who have been making these discoveries in England suggest that the question of the people's food, its quality and quantity, should be the business of the municipalities. That is to say, if the bakers, butchers, brewers, milkmen, grocers and others of Hull or Halifax were in the habit of making the people pay for atmosphere, the authorities of Hull or Halifax should set a standard and see that it is maintained. It is obvious to the least intelligent that there is no necessity for such measures in Palmerston North or New Plymouth , or any other town, where the supply of foodstuffs is merely undertaken for philanthropic reasons and not for pTofit. It would be an outrage for a New Zealand housewife to suggest that a milkman or a butterman or a breadseller was "not quite the clean potato," by making him weigh his common commodity, but there arc grave suggestions that the English seller will be-forced to charge for less moisture and atmosphere, glass bottle, i label and tin than heretofore. One feels ' a certain pride in living in a country where the precaution of the authorities is not necessary, where the, smallest plums are put in the top of the bag and the wormy potato is carefully burnt instead of being sold. We believe that inspectors of weights and measures do exist in this country and that they are at work everyday in every town in New Zealand. It is almost pathetic that these conscientious persons should be doomed to wander around doing work that is absolutely unnecessary, seeing that no discrepancies can be found. In this matter the New Zealand Department of Industries and Commerce might help the British Board of Trade and the British municipalities by explaining the perfect, system existing in this country whereby everyone gets what one pays for, full measure, pressed down and flowing over, true to name and unadulterated. The British conscience would be so stirred that tradesmen in the Old Land would quit selling stale bread for sausages nnd of juggling with the avoirdupois tables.