View report page

46
It is perhaps unnecessary for me to add that Mr.
Margetts did everything possible to put these various
technical matters before the Court from the public interest
point of view. The learned Magistrate, after a
most exhaustive hearing, refused an application for costs
against us, informing Counsel that he had not
expressed his opinion of the morality of the transactions
which had been proved before him.
John Foot.
18th October, 1915.
BUTTER SAMPLES.
With regard to certain butter cases recently in
hand, it may be of interest to add that, with a view to
ascertaining to what extent the people of the East End
of London are having margarine supplied to them at
butter prices, I have, at some considerable trouble, made
enquiry and find that, whilst in certain instances our
people were being supplied with margarine, under the
pretence of its being butter, at 1s. 2d. per lb., it was
possible in districts as far apart as Leyton and
Lewisham, Hammersmith and Barking, to purchase
butter at 1s. 2d. per lb. This in addition to several
samples of genuine butter purchased in our own Borough
at the same price.
Although the point usually set up in these butter
cases is that one cannot expect pure butter at such and
such a price, I wish to point out that this really has
nothing whatever to do with the matter. The essential
point is that the most careful enquiry made in the
various markets and purchases made do not disclose anything
which justifies a common brand of margarine