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81
An appeal against this decision was heard in the King's Bench Division in October,
1912, before Lord Alverstone, L.C.J. Channell, and Avory, J.J., who held
that the magistrate had wrongly convicted the appellants, who in their view were
not " carrying on the trade of purveyors of milk " within the meaning of the Order, and
that, therefore, they did not require to be registered.
In giving his judgment, however, Lord Alverstone said that he did not decide
what would under other circumstances constitute "the purveying of milk," though this
judgment referred to above shows that a person in order to be a "purveyor" of milk
must carry on the business so that the selling of milk is a substantial and not merely
a subsidiary part of such business.
The whole issue turned upon the meaning of the expression "carrying on the trade
of a purveyor of milk," and it is now established that a person who occasionally sells milk
in connection with another business does not carry on the trade of a purveyor of milk,
within the meaning of these Orders, and consequently does not require to be registered
under the provisions of the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders.
As there is a large number of firms in the City selling milk under similar conditions,
the decision, which involves the loss to sanitary authorities of the most effective means
of control of this class of milk-seller, is one of the greatest importance.
The value of Section 5 of the London County Council (General Powers) Act,
1908, which provides that any Sanitary Authorities in the Administrative County of
London (which includes the City) may remove from, or refuse to enter on the Register,
the names of dairymen or purveyors of milk whose premises are in the opinion of such
Sanitary Authority for any reason unsuitable for the sale of milk, is largely discounted
by the decision under review, as the provisions of the section were mainly directed
against the small and occasional sales of milk, such as from chandlers' or general shops,
grocers' shops, restaurateurs, and the small confectioners' shops, the proprietors of which
are, in the majority of cases, foreigners, and has in many cases been found useful in
remedying conditions altogether unfavourable to the proper and cleanly sale or storage
of milk.
The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, Section 34, as amended by the
Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1886, empowers the Local Government Board to
make Orders for the registration with the Local Authority of all persons carrying on
the trade of cowkeepers, dairymen or purveyors of milk, but gives no definition of a
"purveyor of milk." It would appear, therefore, that the legislation would intend it to
mean in fact what it says, i.e., any person purveying (or selling) milk.
A purveyor of an article is a person who carries on the business of supplying and
selling that article, and I would point out that although the sale of milk by a person
carrying on the sale of other articles of food may be small and merely supplemental to
such trade, there is no guarantee that such sale of milk may not largely increase;
moreover—and this in my opinion is a most important point—the mere fact that the
sale of milk is only incidental to other business would tend to result in less care being
taken in handling and dealing with it, and that there was consequently an even greater
need of control than obtained in properly registered dairies.