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that some attempt, at any rate, is made to prevent the exposure of
such foods to dust pollution, and the powers that we possess of
revoking or refusing to grant such licences should be more
stringently exercised in this direction. The present method of
dealing with these applications through a Works and Open Spaces
Committee or similar Committees merely from the point of view of
road space is not satisfactory.
The Principle of Compulsory Notification.—The principle of
notification is already to some extent enforced in the food trades.
The vendor, for instance, notifies the intending purchaser of the
quality of some of his wares by means of display of notices under
the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Regulations; he
must notify his customers, by means of an appropriate marking, of
the indication of origin of various imported foodstuffs in accordance
with the orders made under the Merchandise Marks Act, 1926.
Notice of slaughtering under the Meat Regulations, 1924, is, in a
sense, a notification of suspected meat. It is enforced so that the
Food Inspector may be present at the time of slaughtering in order
to separate the good from the damaged or diseased carcases and to
prevent the damaged or diseased carcases reaching the market.
I have mentioned legal proceedings under the Merchandise
Marks Act, 1887, Section 2, arising from the use of bottles belonging
to other firms than the defendants. The powers of the sanitary
authority are, however, unnecessarily restricted in enforcing the
Merchandise Marks Act, 1887, so much so that the sanitary inspector
is only able to take proceedings as a member of the public; not as
an officer of the sanitary authority. Under Section 6 of the Milk
and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915, the name and address of a
purveyor of milk must be on the barrow. This is a form of notification
and is very useful indeed, and any contravention in this respect
can, of course, be dealt with by the sanitary authority. It is
decided, however, that so far as the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation)
Act, 1915, is concerned, a purveyor who has his name and address
on the barrow need not have them on the bottles he uses provided
the bottles are sold unopened, so that notification falls short in
that respect. It may, however, be very necessary from several
aspects, including that of investigating infectious disease, to trace
a purveyor by means of the bottles; small shopkeepers, for instance,
have been unable to tell us who supplied to them the bottles of
milk they were selling to the public , the vendor being described in
one instance as "the cheap man," and the bottles themselves
supplied by this dairyman were from various firms. It was an
invariable practice of the firm I have mentioned, who could be used
in so many directions as an illustration of various unsatisfactory
aspects of milk distribution, to use bottles belonging to other firms.
Since the sanitary authority were unable to proceed under the Milk