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69
Food and Drugs Acts. Three hundred samples have
been purchased under the provisions of the Sale of Food and
Drugs Acts and submitted to the Public Analyst for analysis, of
which 285 were certified to be genuine and 15 adulterated, the
adulterations thus being equivalent to 5 per cent. of the samples
taken. A few other samples were purchased during the year, but
were not submitted for analysis, in some cases because the vendor,
before the completion of the purchase, made a sufficient declaration
as to the character of the article being delivered which would
have nullified any proceedings that might have had to be taken;
in other cases because the samples were known to be genuine by
reason of various circumstances attendant upon the purchase;
and in other cases because the purchase of the sample was not
accompanied by all the formalities set out under the Act, by reason
of the purchase being made by an Agent employed to make these
purchases at regular intervals in order to become as it were a
regular customer at the premises suspected, it having been found
that whilst regular customers were supplied with articles not
always genuine, yet on the appearance of a stranger to make a
purchase a genuine article was supplied, thus, although the agent
employed to take the samples under the Sale of Food and Drugs
Acts always received genuine articles, the working people resident
in the neighbourhood and dealing regularly at the premises were
supplied with articles more or less adulterated.
Of the total number of samples purchased, 109 were butter,
of which 9 were adulterated; 109 were milk, of which 2 only
were certified to be adulterated; the remaining adulterated
samples were 2 of coffee, 1 of cream, the adulteration in this case
being only a small amount of preservative, and no proceedings