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On the 5th March, 1906, the Select Committee before referred to was
appointed "to consider whether any, and if so, what further legislation was
required in order to secure the better control and conduct of the trade in
butter and butter substitutes."
The result of their deliberations was ordered to be printed on 9th July,
1906, and a summary of the same with a copy of the recommendations of the
Committee will be found in my Annual Report for that year.
The Butter and Margarine Act, 1907, is the result of the Select Committee's
Report. It was introduced in the Commons as a Government measure by the
Representative of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on the 17th
February, 1907, and received the Royal Assent on the 21st August of that
year.
The Act came into operation on the 1st January, 1908.
The object of this Act is to prevent the adulteration of butter at its source
instead of, as in previous Bills, making the seller or retailer responsible. It
will bring under efficient Government inspection those Factories and traders
who for years past have been sophisticating butter.
The Act provides for the inspection of all so-called butter factories where
blending is done, as well as all margarine factories, and a thorough system of
tracing the products from one wholesale dealer to another until it reaches the
retail trader. The penalties for infringement of the Act will probably act as
a deterrent, as the fines vary from £20 for a first offence, £50 for a second
offence, and not exceeding £100 for the third and any subsequent offence, and
in cases where imprisonment can be inflicted under Section 17 of the Sale
of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, to such imprisonment as is by that section
authorised, i.e.:
"(2) Where, under any provision of the Sale of Food and Drugs
"Acts, a person guilty of an offence is liable to a fine not exceeding
"£50, and the offence in the opinion of the Court was committed
"by the personal act, default, or culpable negligence of the person
"accused, that person shall be liable (if the Court is of opinion that
"a fine will not meet the circumstances of the case) to imprison"ment,
with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding
"three months."
Provision is made in the Act for the registration of factories and
ments, also for the inspection of factories by Officers of the Board of
Agriculture and the Local Government Board, and by an Officer of the Local
Authority, who is authorised to procure samples under the Sale of Food and
Drugs Acts, if specially authorised in that behalf by the Local Authority,
and he shall have the same powers of entry, inspection and sampling
as regards any premises registered with the authority as a butter
factory. It will be an offence under the Act if any substance intended for use