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106
Authorised packers applying the National Marks
improperly can be dealt with by the National Marks
Committee appointed by the Minister under the
principal Act, and, if necessary, expelled from the
select body of traders who are allowed to apply the
Mark.
Under section 2 (4) of the principal Act any
person not specially authorised by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries who marks an article, covering
or label, with a National Mark commits an offence
and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding twenty pounds.
Section 4 (1) of the 1931 Act goes a step further
as it deals with cases in which there is no actual
marking of an article, covering or label with the
National Mark or the Mark is not falsely applied, but
in which a label or ticket bearing a misleading mark is
displayed on, in or near the goods ; it is an offence to
use in connection with any article whatsoever a mark
which is calculated to lead to a false belief that the
article is one to which grade designations indicating
quality have been prescribed.
The scope of section 2 (3) (c) of the principal Act
is also extended by section 4 (2) of the 1931 Act.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries have
pointed out that any apparent contravention of the
above provisions should be reported to the Ministry
so that it may instruct one of its officers to confer with
the officers of the local authority on the question
whether in all the circumstances, a prosecution is
desirable and if so whether it should be undertaken by
the local authority or the Ministry. If traders received
the impression, however erroneous, that the
use of the National Mark involved the risk of an
appearance in the Police Court many of them would
refuse to deal in National Mark Produce and the
development of the Ministry's market policy would be
seriously retarded.