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108
COMMUNICATIONS FROM VARIOUS LOCAL AUTHORITIES
CONSIDERED DURING 1903.
During the year your Council received communications
from various Local Authorities on public health matters as
follows (which were referred to the Works Committee and
reported on by your Medical Officer of Health):—
1. From tbe Kensington Borough Council (7th January)
stating that owing to difficulties which had arisen in
connection with proceedings under the Sale of Food and
Drugs Acts through the absence of any definite standard,
they had addressed communications to the Local Governmant
Board and the Board of Agriculture on the matter, urging
very strongly that regulations might be framed by the
last-named Board, which should place both the Commissioners
of Customs and the Local Authorities under
the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts in a position to effectually
deal with the sale of inferior butter in the future, and
asking this Council to make similar representations to the
Government Departments named on the subject. Your
Medical Officer reported that, in his opinion, there was no
necessity for any variation in the present law relating to
butter, and that he failed to see that any alteration in the
standard would be of any material advantage. The
Council decided not to support the action taken by the
Kensington Borough Council.
2. From the Battersea Borough Council f25th March)
stating that they had for some time experienced great
difficulty in administering the Sale of Food and Drugs
Acts, owing firstly to the conflicting decisions given by the
stipendiary magistrates, sometimes, in their opinion, quite
against the weight of the evidence adduced, and secondly,
to the system of analysis (and certificates given thereon)
adopted by Somerset House, the Court of Appeal in such