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The samples taken comprised 331 of milk, 126 butter, 11 sausages, 8 brawn,
7 lard, 5 bread, 5 tea dust, 4 bread and butter, 4 cheese, 4 vinegar, 2 corned beef,
2 pork pie, 2 lemonade, 2 seidlitz powder. 2 cream of tartar, 1 tartaric acid, 1
mustard, 1 coffee, and 1 sugar.
Of the milk samples 77, or 23.2 per cent., were found not to be genuine, as
compared with 27.9 in 1906, 20.8 in 1905, 23.5 in 1904, and 22.0 in 1903. In the

In 37 of the samples of milk water was certified to have been added. In 12
the amount added was more than 5 per cent, in excess of the standard of the Board
of Agriculture, and in 25 it was less than 5 per cent. In 26 of the samples the
milk was deficient in butter fat, the deficiency being; over 5 per cent, below the
standard in 7, and under that amount in the remainder. In 5 of the samples there
was both an excess of water and a deficiency of fat, and 1 of the samples contained
besides added water a trace of artificial colouring matter. Another of the samples
containing added water also showed the presence of 1½ grains of boric acid per pint.
In 7 samples traces of artificial colouring matter were the only adulteration found,
and two contained boric acid, not exceeding 2½ grains to the pint. Where boric
acid is found on analysis in milk it is the practice to send a written warning to the
vendors pointing out that they are liable to be proceeded against under the Sale
of Food and Drugs Acts.
Legal proceedings were instituted in 27, or 35 per cent. of the cases in which
the milk samples were below the standard of the Board of Agriculture'. In 19
convictions were obtained, 3 were withdrawn, and the remainder were dismissed, most
of them on account of the production of warranties. In one instance in which the
summons was dismissed the magistrate held that the person who served the milk
which was purchased at a private house was not acting as the assistant of the
defendant who was summoned, and in another case the summons was withdrawn
owing to the death of the defendant. In the remaining 65 per cent., in which the
samples were below standard, prosecutions were not advisable, the percentages of
abstraction of fat and of added water being too small to make it likely for magistrates
to convict.