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117
not have been possible, either as regards the foods mentioned by
the Magistrate, or as regards the cream, except the action we took
in refusing registration of the premises for the sale of cream. If this
power of refusing registration had not existed no steps could have
been taken by the local authority to prevent the sale of cream under
these conditions and certainly any attempt at seizure and Police
Court proceedings for contamination of the goods mentioned by the
Magistrate would have been impossible. It is of the very greatest
importance that we should not relax our standard as regards the
registration of dairies and the sale of milk and cream and that it
should be our aim to raise the conditions governing the preparation
and distribution of other foods, such as those mentioned above, to
that standard.
It is only necessary to consider some prosecutions as regards
unsound and dirty food or unsatisfactory conduct of a food business
to realise how much time the staff must spend in preparing evidence
and what difficulties arise from the legal point of view. Often the
Food Inspector must become, temporarily, only a detective engaged
on a particular case, corroborative evidence may be required,
analytical or bacteriological. The time spent in preparing evidence
is certainly not appreciated by councillors, who, with that simple
directness which often characterises some of them, when, for
instance, dust is seen to blow over food stalls or open-fronted lock-up
shops, immediately assume that "nothing is being done." Action
directed towards ensuring satisfactory conditions and administration
in the food trades so that food is not likely to be contaminated
is surely a more helpful line of action than seizing food after contamination
and prosecuting in consequence of seizure.
A Registration Difficulty .—It is true that even as regards
registration some difficulties may arise in exceptional cases, but even
so I contend that those difficulties cause less waste of time and
detective work, and the final result—elimination of the offending
firm—is entirely satisfactory. Moreover, these difficulties can be
removed by a slight amendment of existing legal powers. As an
instance of this difficulty which may arise, a dairyman who had been
convicted of various offences in connection with his trade was
removed from the register, his premises in Hackney also ceased to
be operated as a dairy, but he continued to sell milk in Hackney,
being registered elsewhere. Before the statutory period of 21 days
allowed for appeal had expired an application for registration as a
purveyor from this registered address outside the borough was
received from his brother. In all, six such applications were put
forward from this address, and by using this statutory period of
21 days and sending in the application according to meetings of the
sanitary authority this dairyman was able to carry on his trade
for nearly six months in spite of the fact that each application was