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152
SPIRITS.
Pending the settlement of the "What is Whisky ? "question, it was not
considered advisable to take samples last year. The interests involved in this
matter are very great and far-reaching. The present absence of any legal
definition of what whisky should really consist has reacted even in South
Africa, as shown by the following extract from a Report of the Medical
Officer of Health for Johannesburg dated 31st October, 1906. Alluding to
a conviction at the North London Police Court on the 27th February, 1906,
and the subsequent abortive appeal to Quarter Sessions, Dr. Chas. Porter
remarks:—
"Till Mr. Fordham's judgment has been confirmed by a higher Court,
"it would be merely throwing away money to institute proceedings in
"Johannesburg, especially as a recent attempt to do so at Capetown was
"dismissed by the Resident Magistrate."
The same view may be taken of the present state of the question in this
country.
In the last published Report (1905) of the Local Government Board on the
working of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, is a note referring to the exhibition
of notices in public-houses relating to the spirits sold therein.
"Spirits.—The practice of placing in the bars of licensed houses
"notices that all spirits in the establishments are diluted has extended
"considerably in late years. In Finsbury about 32 per cent. of the
"publicans are said to exhibit the notices. In West Suffolk the percentage
is 49, and in Dorset it is 73. It is said that many of these
"notices are not readily visible to the public, and that when they are
"seen their legal significance is probably not often fully appreciated."
A house-to-house visitation was recently made of all public-houses in the
City—333 in number—when it was found that in 135 of them, or upwards
of 40 per cent., notices of some kind or another were exhibited for the
express purpose of protecting the vendors from the consequences of infringing
the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. This inquiry in the City was limited to
"public-houses,"and licensed restaurants, &c., are not included in the above
figures.
It is only right that any trader who makes a bona fide disclosure of the
quality of the articles sold by him should be protected, and each case must
necessarily be decided on its merits.
It should, however, be remembered that publicansstandon a different
footing from other traders. If a milkman were to exhibit notices that all