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SUMMARY.
Fines £12 15 0
Costs 8 2 0
Total £20 17 0
The Itinerant Butter Merchant.
It does not seem out of place here to warn owners of Small hucksters'
shops, small dairies, coffee houses, and refreshment rooms, against buying
their butter from any unknown factor who calls upon them. Frequently
this merchant has no recognised place of business, but goes about different
parts of the Metropolis with his horse and cart, gradually working up a
business with coffee houses, &c., until the food Inspector taking a sample
of his butter on delivery finds upon analysis that it is from 50 to 80 per
cent. Margarine.
After one or two convictions this dangerous person moves his residence
or his business to another locality, perhaps under another name,
to again ply his nefarious trade.
The " butter " he sells is not even margarine, for margarine cannot
be sold as margarine if it contains more than 10 per cent. of butter fat.
The question is, where does he manipulate his "butter." Certainly not
at any factory registered under the Butter and Margarine Act, 1907,
but probably in the kitchen of his house, or in some shed, stable, or
outbuilding, perhaps under the worst conditions.
Magistrates have no sympathy with a person of this class, who sets
out with the deliberate intention of deceiving the public, and to my
mind the highest possible penalty should be inflicted.
The advice to the small shopkeeper is :—buy your butter from a
reputable tradesman, and do not be deluded by an offer of a small
reduction in price, perhaps only id. per pound under market price,
made by a man without an address.