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47
voluntarily by the owners, and the number of these cases during last year
was 41, being 8.9 per cent. of the total number of seizures.
The various quantities of unsound food which are found are discovered by
the Inspectors during the daily round of their districts, as they examine a
proportion of all the food stuffs that come into the Port, and anything which
is found in an unsound condition is formally seized, and a written notice to
that effect is served not only upon the Dock Company, but upon the person
to whom the stuff is consigned.
More than this, as a first step, would not in most circumstances be
practicable.
The fact that the Port Sanitary Authority had never obtained a conviction
was commented upon, but the absence of reasonable grounds for applying for a
conviction was not mentioned.
It is, however, a fact that in the vast majority of cases, as soon as information
of the seizure reaches the persons concerned, they promptly comply with
the directions of the Port Sanitary Authority.
This means very often a great saving of time where sorting out of the good
from the bad is necessary in the case of a large consignment of goods.
It has, consequently, rarely appeared to your Officers that there were any
reasonable grounds for applying, except in some special cases which have been
duly recorded, for a Magistrate's Order, and still fewer grounds upon which
to base an application for a conviction.
It should be obvious that some discretion is necessary in dealing with
articles of food deposited in a wholesale way as merchandise, and that the
offence committed, if any, is not precisely of the same quality or nature as in
the case of the actual retailer to the public.
Whilst this report was in the Press, a conviction has been obtained against
the importer of a quantity of unsound albumen, or white of egg, in the
following circumstances:—
During October a parcel of six cases of this material was imported
from Marseilles, and deposited in the docks. Two of these cases were sold,
and upon examination of the remainder it was found to be unsound and
offensive. The owner stated that it was not intended to be used for human
food, but on finding that two cases of the original consignment had been sold
to a manufacturing confectioner, and was being used for making nougat, the
four remaining cases were thereupon taken before a Magistrate who, upon
hearing the evidence, ordered it to be destroyed, which was done.