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At first sight the number of "adulterated" samples would appear to
have increased. The explanation of this apparent increase is that special
attention has been given to restaurants, coffee houses, &c., the majority of
which are situate in the north part of the City. The south district gives a
more fair idea of the quality of the milk sold for home consumption, as
the majority of the vendors are dairymen. The amount of "good" quality
milk shows an increase, while the "fair" has dropped slightly and the
"poor" rather more so. Separated milk is added to bring down milk of
good quality to the minimum legal standard, or even lower when it is
known that proceedings will not be taken unless the adulteration is in
excess of a margin allowed by the local authority. This Council has
prosecuted when the deficiency was under 5 per cent., and successful
proceedings have been taken in several cases where there had been
persistent adulteration within that limit.
Sixty-one prosecutions were taken with regard to adulteration —
41 for fat abstracted, 14 for added water, and 6 for both fat abstracted
and added water. Fourteen cautions were given to sellers whose milk
contained less than 5 per cent. of added water, or had less than 5 percent.
of fat abstracted. Warranties were set up as a defence in
27 instances, 1 case was adjourned sine die, as the defendant was
reported to be in Italy, and 1 case was withdrawn, as at the hearing it
transpired that the business had been transferred. Details of the
proceedings taken are appended.
Sunday Samples.—150 of the samples of milk were taken on 15
Sundays during the year; 13 (8.6 per cent.) were found to be
adulterated. In the four previous years the figures were 9.1, 10.6, 1T0
and 10.5 per cent. respectively.
Samples taken in course of Delivery—
(a) At Railway Stations.—68 samples of milk were taken on arrival
at Victoria and Charing Cross Railway Stations. Thirty were reported
of good quality, 23 fair, 13 poor, and 2 adulterated.