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278
1913]
unsound or stale, with the result that they were now rejected by the Colonial vendors, and
ior want of a better method of checking the bad or doubtful part of such goods, through
a reliable agent or public authority wherever the goods may be (at home or abroad), the
objectionable system of returning unsatisfactory foodstuffs still exists.
Thus the goods now under consideration, which were not very decidedly unsound,
although they were sufficiently doubtful to render them unfit for purposes of human consumption,
were returned from Australia to London, where they were stopped by the Port of
London Authority, and subsequently liberated on the understanding that they were to be
destroyed, and this department was accordingly notified some days prior to the goods
arriving in this district, when they were surrendered for destruction.
(e) On one occasion, on your instruction, I visited the premises of a wholesale
dairy company, where two 14 lb. tins of unsound condensed milk were found in a basement
room along with 64 tins of the same size containing in the aggregate 8 cwts. of condensed milk,
which was evidently intended for dilution and mixing with fresh milk.
The two blown tins were seized (after the whole of the other tins had been carefully
examined), and subsequently an order for their destruction was given by a Metropolitan
Magistrate sitting at Clerkenwell Police Court.
You presented the facts to the Public Health Committee, who ordered a prosecution,
and at the hearing of the summonses the Magistrate decided not to convict on the evidence
before him, but said there had been gross negligence on the part of defendants, and ordered
them to pay £2 2s. costs.
In concluding my remarks on food inspection let me once more draw your attention
to the amount of various foodstuffs which are regularly contaminated by exposure to dust,
flies, etc., through open windows or on the pavement in front of shops, in the hope that
by constant agitation, some means may be found of stopping the practice, either by
persuasion or compulsion.
In addition to meat, bacon and other provisions which are usually more or less
subjected to cooking processes, that may possibly lessen the dangerous effects of the contamination,
there are other articles similarly exposed which are consumed without any
cooking, dressings or cleansing, such as ripe fruits, cheap sweets, biscuits, etc., exposed to
clouds of dust often, and which are very largely consumed by young children, the effects of
which cannot easily be calculated.

Cowsheds.—There were 5 cowsheds on the register until the licensing meeting of the
L.C.C. in October last, when the renewal of the licence of one situate at Arnold's Dairy,
Seven Sisters Road, was adjourned indefinitely owing to no cows having been kept for a
considerable time. Structural alterations reducing the accommodation from 12 cows to 6
were also carried out at the cowshed in Hercules Place, during which time no cows were
kept. Repairs to roof and stall floors have been carried out at 11. Matilda Street cowshed,
where not more than 2 cows have been kept at any time during the year„ and for a period