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27
Prosecution under the Public Health (London) Act.
One of the few bye-laws made under the above Act, by
the London County Council, which meets with unconditional
approval is that which provides a penalty for persons who
commence sanitary work without giving notice to the Local
Authority, and also provides a penalty for certain classes of
sanitary work which is not properly executed; the public
in this way receive protection. A builder, named G.
Pannett, was prosecuted recently under the before-mentioned
bye-laws, and fined £1 and costs for not giving notice in the
first place, and a similar penalty for executing the work in
an unsatisfactory manner.
Sale of Food and Drugs Act (Table II).
The quarter was mainly devoted to sampling at the
various licensed premises. Each licensed house was visited
by an inspector or his agent, and samples of gin, brandy,
rum, or whisky taken without formality, just in the same
way as an ordinary purchaser might do, with the result that
out of 175 samples taken 32 or 17.5 per cent. were below
the alcoholic strength required by the Act. The houses
from which these samples were derived were then again
visited and samples taken under the Act with all due
formality, but since'each of the premises visited had a more
or less conspicuous notice that the spirits sold were diluted,
the Solicitor concluded that there was no case for prosecution.
The Sale of Food and Drugs Acts may, therefore, be
said to be a dead letter in this district so far as spirits are
concerned. The question of "What is Whisky ?" was not
gone into, pending the appeal in the celebrated Islington
case ; it may, however, be said that most of the whiskies
were blends of patent and other spirits. It can hardly be
considered satisfactory that a general announcement should
be a protection against the operation of the Act; obviously
the statute requires amendment.