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87
Itinerant Vendors.—During the year careful watch was
kept on an itinerant butter vendor whom, we had reason to
believe, was supplying margarine in our district. The suspicion
was confirmed by the purchase of test samples. Finally an
official sample was obtained (No. 62), which led to the conviction
of the vendor, a fine of £3 and £1 3s. 6d. costs being imposed.
Milk Blended Butter.—Thirty-nine samples of butter
submitted to me were milk blended, 11 being "test" samples
and 28 officially purchased.
Under the Butter and Margarine Act, 1907, milk blended
butter can only be sold under special conditions set out in
Section 9, as follows :—
(1) " Milk blended butter shall be dealt with under such
" name or names as may be approved by the Board of
" Agriculture and Fisheries, and under the conditions
" applicable to the sale or description of margarine, with
" the substitution of an approved name for the word
" ' margarine,' and with this modification, that, in any
" case where, in order to comply with those conditions,
" the article is delivered to the purchaser in a wrapper,
" there shall, in addition to the approved name, be
" printed on the wrapper in such manner as the Board
" approve such description of the article setting out the
" percentage of moisture or water contained therein, as
" may be approved by the Board."
The milk blended butters which have been purchased by
your inspectors, were sold in wrappers without any description
or distinctive marks. It will be noted that the wrapper giving
the description of the article has to be approved of by the
Board of Agriculture.