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94
There will always be a difficulty in exercising control over trade in ice
creams carried out by these itinerant vendors as long as the police have no
power of making arrests in those cases where the place of manufacture is not
exhibited on the barrow in accordance with the requirements of the law.
From enquiries made in outside districts where these men obtained their
supplies, it was ascertained that in 20 cases only was the material made under
satisfactory conditions. In ten instances the place of manufacture exhibited on
the barrow was incorrectly stated, in three cases the name mentioned was
unknown at the address given, and in four cases the conditions of manufacture
were stated to be unsatisfactory. The premises where ice creams are sold in
the City may be classified as under:—
Place op Manufacture.
Number. In the City. In other districts.
Tea shops 115 31 84
Confectioners 19 9 10
Restaurants 12 66
Small confectioners and light
refreshment shops 5 4 1
Do. owned by foreigners 98 35 63
Total 249 85 164
From the above it will be seen that of the 103 small confectioners and light
refreshment shops in the City where ice creams are sold no less than 98 of
them, or 95 per cent., are owned by foreigners.
WATERCRESS.
In May last the Sanitary Committee referred to me for consideration and
review a Report issued by the London County Council on Watercress and
Watercress Beds in the neighbourhood of London. On a former occasion I
expressed the opinion with regard to this investigation that the Local
Government Board were the proper authority for conducting such an enquiry.
The Report contains a large number of facts relating to all the known
watercress beds "within some fifty miles of the County supplying the
"London market," some 129 beds in all, but in no single instance can any of
the beds referred to be identified.
It is disquieting to find of the samples of water examined there were
22 in which the nitrogenous organic matter was large in quantity, and that in
four of them a slight odour of sewage was detected on heating; some of these
are reported as being contaminated with sewage matter. There were also