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10
simple scheme of arbitration to settle any dispute that may arise.
Until you have this, you are not touching the housing question
at all.
To keep this report within reasonable limits, I can only deal
very briefly with the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875 to 1899,
which, with its pit-falls and legal technicalities, is probably the
greatest imposter of them all, in so far as it pretends to protect
the public from adulteration.
There is some vague idea, I believe, that it was originally
passed, and subsequently amended, with a view to punishing the
vendors of sophisticated articles of food. Anyone with any
experience of its actual working is painfully aware that a vendor
of food can be as fraudulent as he likes providing he gives a
something that the legal mind calls a notice to the purchaser. It
is the gross abuse of this notice clause that constitutes one of the
greatest scandals, and permits the wholesale cheating of poor
persons by dishonest dealers. The following cases amongst
many similar show how an inefficient Adulteration Act protects
the thief:—
Case 1. Coffee purchased at 1s. 2d. per lb. On the
wrapper, in large letters, is printed "Best Coffee" &c.,
and down near the edge, in very small print, the words
"Sold as a mixture." On analysis this "coffee" is
found to consist of 82 per cent. chicory and the
remaining 18 per cent. coffee. Common sense, not to
mention honest dealing, would suggest that the legal
system permitting such transactions as these to escape
is somewhat faulty.
Case II. Cocoa, bought at usual price for cocoa. On the
wrapper in small print "A mixture, but does not
contain anything injurious." On analysis this is found
to consist of a mixture of .50 per cent. of sago and
sugar, the remainder cocoa, or about one half of what it
purports to be.