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the strand district, london. 37
This does not represent all the food-stuffs disposed
of by your Board, as much refuse fruit and vegetables
are collected in Covent Garden Market in the special
carts provided for the purpose. The custom is for
inferior varieties of various food stuffs to be sold with
the intention that only what is good in it should be
retailed to the public; the rest the buyer is expected
to pick out and throw into your Board's carts. If the
retailer fails to do this, he is liable to have the food
in his possession seized and destroyed, and no action
results against the wholesale seller. But if any article
has been sold to the retailer for food, the person who
so sold the same is liable, on conviction, to fine and
imprisonment, unless he proves that at the time he sold
the said article he did not know, and had no reason to
believe, that it was in such condition.
In the end of 1893, a summons was taken out by
your Board against a Covent Garden firm, who had sold
by auction to a costermonger two boxes of oranges, the
contents of one box being entirely bad, and a fine of £10
and costs was ultimately imposed by the magistrate. An
appeal was taken to the County of London Sessions and
dismissed, as it was proved that the boxes of oranges had
been technically marked as being of good quality by
the defendants' servants, who must, therefore, have first
examined the contents of the box.
Another case on somewhat similar lines in another
district was brought before 11 judges sitting as a Court
for Consideration of Crown cases Reserved. The appeal
was upheld, a decision in which 10 of the judges concurred.
This case, however, differs from that taken up
by your Board, in that it was not proved that the
defendant had sold the walnuts as good and fit for food.