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140
The fact that local authorities have successfully sustained prosecutions in
cases where boracic acid has been added to milk as a preservative in no way
lessens the obligation of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to make
regulations as suggested.
BUTTER.
Three hundred and twenty.eight samples were taken, of which 17, or
5*18 per cent., were certified to be adulterated.

The 328 samples taken during the year included 87 that were taken in
coffee and eating houses. The samples were collected during the first five
months of the year with a view of checking the practice which was known to
prevail amongst keepers of these places of substituting margarine for butter
when slices of bread and butter were asked for.
This form of fraud was first investigated in the City in 1903, when out of
71 samples taken at coffee houses, it was found that in 19 cases, or
26*7 per cent., margarine had been used as a substitute for butter.
Some correspondence with the "London Coffee, Restaurant and Dining
Room Keepers' Trade Protection Society" took place, and on the understanding
that a notice should be conspicuously exhibited, no further
proceedings were then taken.
Further series of samples were taken both in 1904 and 1905, with the
result that the number of cases in which this deceit was detected was reduced
from 26 7 per cent. in 1903 to nil in the three years.
There was, however, a revival of this form of fraud during 1906.
It is a particularly mean deception, as it not only gives an unfair advantage
to the dishonest trader, but also prejudices the poorer class of customers who
are unable to protect themselves.