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152
The following are the new duties imposed upon the Corporation by this
Act:—
(1.) The registration of butter factories.
(2.) The registration of any premises on which there is manufactured
any milk-blended butter, or on which there is carried on the
business of a wholesale dealer in milk-blended butter.
(3.) The inspection of and sampling at any premises registered
in the City as a butter factory.
With regard to (3), Officers of a Local Authority can only have powers of
entry, inspection or sampling in butter factories when specially authorised in
that behalf by the Local Authority.
For these purposes, therefore, my recommendation that your Medical Officer
of Health and the six Senior Sanitary Inspectors should be authorised in
accordance with Section 2 (2) of the Act, was agreed to at the Court of
Common Council on the 31st October, 1907, and the Local Government
Board and Board of Agriculture and Fisheries notified accordingly.
NETHERLANDS BUTTER BILL.
In January, 1907, I submitted for the consideration of the Sanitary Committee
the views of the Public Analyst for the City—Dr. Teed—with regard
to the suggested Netherlands Butter Bill, a synopsis of which the ConsulGeneral
of that country had been good enough to furnish.
Briefly, the Bill contained provisions for the control of places where butter
is made, on much the same lines as obtains in the English Butter and
Margarine Bill passed last year, but as there were certain clauses in it of
a techno-chemical character, the Committee invited Dr. Teed's opinion thereon.
Dr. Teed's notes on the Bill were as under :—
"The first Clause 'Commercial Butter must contain a certain per"centage
of fat, to be fixed by Royal Decree,' is somewhat similar to
"Clause 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, which gives power
"to the Board of Agriculture to fix certain standards for butter (as also
"for milk, cream, and cheese). So far as regards butter, the Board of
"Agriculture has only fixed a standard as to the amount of water it
"may contain, but they could also fix a standard for fat if they chose.
"The second Clause, 'Margarine shall not indicate a higher saturation
"figure than 10 for the volatile fatty acids contained in it,' means that
"the amount of butter permissible to be mixed with margarine shall
"not exceed some 40 per cent. As it stands, no method of anal) sis