Anglo-Colonial Notes.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 137, 11 June 1898, Page 4 (Supplement)

Anglo -Colonial Notes.

(piiom our srEOiAii correspondent.) London, 7th May. ADULTERATION OP DAIRY PRODUCTS. The butter merchants at last week's meeting in connection with boraeic acid Boomed to think there was some possibility of tho subject being dealt with in Mr. Chaplin's Food Adulteration Bill. That Bill, however, soems very unlikely to bocomo law for somo time to oome, and judging by Mr. Ohapliu'a reply to the largo deputation, representing about 70 agricultural societies, that waited on him last Tuesday to urgo tho desirability of immediate legislation on the question of adulteration of dairy products, tho importers of butter from Australasia will have to take Rome other steps to check the prosecutions for the sale of butter containing boracio acid, which seem likely to inflict irreparable injury on tho colonial butter trade. Lord Wonlock, in introducing the deputation, pointed out that English dairymen had to encounter tho most sovere competition from foreign countries and the colonies, and nlso from that peculiar production known as margarine. Thoy feared the total destruction of their trade. The report of the Dairy Products Committee recommended — (1) The establishment of a Court of Referouce for fixing standards of purity, &o. (2) The examination of dairy products at tho ports to chock importation of adulterated produce. (3) Tho prohibition of the artificial colouring of margarine to resemble butter. (4) The prohibition of the mixture of margarine and butter for sale. Lord Wenlock, after condemning tho use of preservatives and antiseptics in butter, urged that tho Government should give careful consideration to tho recommendations of the Select Committee on the Food and Drugs Act, and that the question of tho adulteration of dairy products should be dealt with in a manner satisfactory to tho farmers and consumers. Mr. Chaplin, while sympathising with the deputation, held out no hope of the introduction of the Food Adulteration Bill this session, nor did he see anything in the imports of foreign milk, which amounted to only 110,000 gallons out of the 600,000,000 consumed in England, to threaten the imminent ruin of the home milk trade. He had made arrangements for the examination of samples of foreign milk by Dr. Klein, and the enforcement of sanitary conditions was a question for consideration. 'As regards the fixing of standards of quality for food, it was the intention of the Select Committee that the whole question should be further examined by experts, and ho thought that further investigation by a competent body of experts was desirable, and it was under consideration now. He intended to cope with the fraud that existed in the sale of margarine, but did not believe in practically destroying the trade in an article of such large and popular" consumption . He was sanguine that ho should be able to make proposals for the inspection of dairy products at the ports which would effectually check adulteration at the ports of entry, and ho intended to have more efficient inspection and administration of the law at home also. The fact is that tho British farmer wants Protection, and hopes to get it by slandering the quality. of imported food. The dead set that is now being made upon the foreign dairy trade is on all-fours with the violent attack and ignorant prejudices against frozen mutton that exist even at the present day. ANTARCTICA AND ARGENTAURUM. Dr. Emmens, of ' Argentaurum fame,' has, on behalf of the Research Society of which he is President, submitted to tho President and Council of the Royal Society a proposal for a scientific expedition to Antartica od tho following lines : — A general committee is to bo formed of six, persons nominated respectively by the Royal Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, the Academic dcs Sciences, the Royal Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Research Society. This committee is to determine the scope and details of an international expedition and is to select an executive commiiteo of five — a Russian, a German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, and an American — to accompany and direct the expedition and act as a Court of Reference. ►. The executive committee is to select tho staff of the expedition, procure and equip the vessels, provide scientific appliances, and generally draw up a plan of campaign. The members of the expedition are to have their powers and work defined by a code approved of by the executive committee and their remuneration determined by that committee, whose remuneration is to be settled by the general committee, whose remuneration is to be fixed by the six societies. The general committee is to arrange a plan for investigating, reporting, and publishing the scientific results of the expedition. The Research Society represented by Dr. Emmens will contribute 100,000dols, and engage to raißO 400,000d01s more in the United States, leaving the other halfmillion dollars to be provided by Europe. If a better y plan, ensuring international co-operation,' can be suggested, the Research Society is willing to adopt it. I fear that Dr. Emraens's international expedition will prove as ineffectual as Lord Salisbury's Bteam roller, the Concert of Europe. CRIMINAL EVIDENCE BILL. The conservative nature of English public opinion finds its best illustration in the fierce controversy that rages from time to time in the Mother Country over some reform — such as the adoption of the Land Transfer system, the extension of the franohise, or< marriage with a deceased wife's sister—which has long ' become a matter of ancient history in the selfgoverning colonies, whose inhabitants, though British to the backbone, breathe a freer atmosphere, and are untrammolled by the hoary traditions that hamper progress in this conservative island. The opponents here of such reforms conjure up all sorts of fantastical difficulties and dangers, that the practical working of the lawa in the colonies has proved to exist solely in tho imaginations of thoso opposing the innovations. One would expect in a country that prides itself upon the fairness of its administration of justice that any proposal to abolish the last relic of a barbarous system which endeavoured to ascertain the truth by closing the mouths of those best acquainted with it, which disqualified as witnesses tho parties to civil auita and all connected with them, which considered every man as innocent until proved guilty, atfd yet forbade him to open his mouth to free himself from the crime of which he was accused, would have the unanimous support of all classes. Yet" the Criminal Evidence Bill, by which prisoners ar.e to be allowed to give evidence on their own behalf, has met and continues j to meet with stubborn opposition. The principle has been affirmed eight times in the House of Lords, and four times in the i House of Commons, and approved by the Lord Chancellor, tho Chief Justice, Lords Herßoheli and James, Sir Edward Clarke, Sir Harry Poland (who has prosecuted in thousands of cases), Sir George Lewis (who has prepared the defence of thousands of accused persons), the law officers in the late and present Administrations ; 26 Acts of Parliament havo permitted prisoners to give evidence in their own behalf in various offences ; the system prevails in all the British self-governing colonies, most of the Crown colonies, and practically all the States of America, and yet the Bill has not become law. It provoked a debate on Monday night of lengthy duration, and then the closure had to be applied before the second reading was carried by 229 to 80. Sir Herbert Stephen has fought it tooth and nail in the press. Mr. Justice Hawkins and Mr. John Morley 'have been converted from sympathisers to .oDjonentß, while ouoh clear-headed men aa

Mr. Justice Collins and Messrs. Carson, Lyttelton, and Atherley- Jones consider it a Bill for tho inquisition of prisoners, not for their protection. At present, as tho Attorney- General pointed out, such anomalies exist as that if a man enters a house and commits a rape he can give evidence, but if he commits murder he cannot ; his mistress can prove an alibi that may he the means of his acquittal, his wife cannot. On the part of the opponents of the Bill there was no attempt mado to find out how the system worked in the colonies — one member indeed dismissed contemptuously the argument that tho change advocated was the law in the colonies by saying that he was not aware that the law of the land was as much inspected there by all classes as it is in England. Tho chief arguments against the Bill wore the following : — Every prisoner would either have to plead guilty or go into the witness-box, where the uneducated or stupid would ho confused and at a disadvantage. Many a prisoner innocent of the offence with which he was charged, but by no means stainless in other respects, would be likely to blunder into evasive or lying statements, the exposure of which would damage him in the eyes of the jury, although they did not affect his actual guilt. A prisoner should in respect of cross-ex-amination be on exactly the same footing as other witnesses, and be liable to be crossoxamined as" to previous convictions and character, or nottobeexaminedatall. The oath of a prisoner has no value. The Judge would have in many cases, especially where the prosecutor was inexperienced, to cross-examine the prisoner himself, aud thus the odious inquisitorial system of France would replace our present ' humane and beneficent' one. Perjury would be committed on a gigantic scale and trials would be extraordinarily protracted. Lender the existing system an infinitesimally small number of innocent prisoners is convicted. Tho onus of proof would be shifted to the prisoner, who would have to establish his own innocence, for if he refrained from entering the witness-box his guilt would be inferred. The Bill is substantially tho same as the laws in force in the Australasian colonies, with the omission of the section providing that no comment shall be made upon the accused's refusal to give evidence, a section which is thi great safeguard of the prisoner, and without which the Bill is open to the argument that it gives but one right, the right to cross-examine the prisoner. Mr. Healy, who considered the Bill a rattrap, pointed out that Buch a provision existed in America, but no one seems to have suggested that it should be included in the English Bill, which, although it has now passed its second reading in the House of Commons for the fifth time, may yet be shelved. The Bill, by the way, does not apply to Ireland. Is it because Paddy's blarney in the witness-box would secure too many acquitals ? Could not the Mother Country utilise some of her unemployed legal talent by appointing a Commision of briefless barristers to visit the self-govern-ing colonies, examine the working of legal reforms that have not yet been adopted in Great Britain, and report to the Imperial Parliament ? It's a wise father that picks up wrinkles from his son. In the matter of legal reforms England baa still a great deal to learn from her colonies. PERSONAL. Quite a bevy of musicians arrived by the Ruahine. Mrs. Janet Smith, of Christchurch, has benefited much by the voyage, and is now actively employed in collecting information on musical subjects with a view of keeping up with the times. Fellowpassengers of hers were Mrs. and Miss Parsons, the recipients of a very gratifying testimonial on their departure from Wellington, and Miss Fitchett, one of Dunediu's leading pianists, who, I understand, intends to prosecute her musical studies still further than she had an opportunity of doing during her last sojourn in Europe. MissTherese Sievwright gave a very successful recital on the 28th in the Salle Erard, which drew a large and fashionable audience, and in the course of which she sang "O Don Fatale," from Verdi's "Don Carlos," •'Willst due mem Herz mir echenken," the air attributed to Bach, Schumann's "Dv bist wio cine Blitme," Brahma's " "Wiegenlied," and " All Souls Day " with much brilliancy and feeling. For the last she was enthusiastically encored. She was assisted by M. Johannes Woolf with violin solos, while Signor Panzani accompanied. Miss Sievwright has improved immensely in the last year, and The Times says that the favourable impression created at her first recital was more than upheld at her second, and that her voice seema to have gained in roundness and her Btyle to havo matured. She must now be ranked aa a finished artist, with brilliant style and taking manner, and with every proßpeot of a successful aareer before her. The Agent- General responded for "The Ladies" at the Cordwainers' dinner last week, and delivered an address on Labour at the Browning Settlement at Camberwell last Sunday. He was one of the guests at Lincoln's Inn the last Grand Night, and took part in the discussion on foreign shipping after last Wednesday's dinner at the Article Club, at which Mr. Tom Mackenzie was his guest. The Archives of Social Legislation and Statistics, edited by Dr. Heinrich Braun in Berlin, contains an interesting paper from Mr. Reeves's pen (translated into German) on Now Zealand's legislation concerning factories, shopn, and domestic servants.