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70
Lane for 23s. a case, with 60 days guarantee; 10 cases to another tradesman in
Angel Lane, Stratford.
Information was given to the Sanitary Authority of West Ham relating to the
Canning Town and Angel Lane parcels. No tins were found at the latter place,
but 22 tins were found in the former; these were seized and condemned by the
Magistrate, and the East London Produce Company was afterwards fined £20 and
£5 5s. costs.
Sixty out of the sixty-six tins which had been sold to the tradesman in Globe
Road were in a putrid condition, and were condemned by the Magistrate.
Mr. Weir had arranged to pay 4s. a case to the wholesale firm for all the tins.
All the invoices to Mr. Weir or the East London Produce Company were marked
" to be used for poultry food."
Mr. Weir was charged (1) for depositing for sale at 138, Old Church Road,
seven tins of corned beef, which were unsound and unwholesome; (2) for having
sold 60 tins of corned beef to the tradesman in Globe Road, knowing or having
reason to believe that they were unfit for human food.
The case was first heard at the Thames Police Court, where Mr. Weir elected
to go for trial by a jury. The case lasted two days at the Police Court and two
full days at the Central Criminal Court.
Judge Rentoul, in summing up, remarked that " the selling of diseased food, or
food likely to poison people, was about the most dastardly kind of murder that
could possibly be committed. A large number of people died in this city because
of the food they ate. It had been said by one authority that in this city and other
parts ot the country more people died from impure food than from hunger, If a
man murdered another with a knife or pistol he was pretty safe to be caught and
hanged. But the man who, for profit to himself, indulged in business of this sort,
especially among the poor, was carrying on about as wicked a business as could be
carried on. The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, had been passed to try to
minimise—though he was afraid that no Statute would ever stop entirely—offences
of this kind, for which, in some countries, men would be lynched."
The jury having found the prisoner guilty on both counts, Judge Rentoul said
it was sad that a man of defendant's obvious abilities should descend to practices
of this sort, which were so terribly destructive and cruel. He sentenced him to
four months' imprisonment with hard labour.
On September 18th. Mr. Jack Woolf, of 103, Hogarth Houses, was summoned
for exposing for sale on a barrow, 71 lbs. of plums which, were unsound and unfit
for human food. He was fined 21s.