DESIRE FOR HUMBUG.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 166, 12 July 1912, Page 4

DESIRE FOR HUMBUG.

PERVADES ALL CLASSES. .AFFECTS TRADE AND PRICE-.

(By Telegraph.Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday. At the Cost of Living Commission today Mr -I. P. Frengley, medical secretary to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Department, referred to the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. Regulations under the Act had been made dealing with the standard of foods (milk, butter, cheese, etc.), labels, and weights. Further proposed regulations had now been prepared by the present PublLHealth Department, and -were at present in tbe hands of the Crown law officers before submission to Cabinet. These regulations dealt with the labelling of goods so as to secure a tstatement of the trade name ami description of the contents of Cue package, to secure the net weight being displayed on the label, to restrict the use of preservatives and artificial flavours, the protection of all foodstuffs from contamination, and to fix a public standard of the common foodstuffs. Popper was often adulterated with 150 per cent of flour or ground rice. He. was not satisfied that they had done very much in improving the standard of milk. The fines imposed in ordinary cases of watered milk were absolutely futile. There was one factor which pervaded all classes, and increased the cost of living—"the intense desire for humbug." He had been informed that a certain jam could be sold at a higher price than one of exactly similar quality, both being of New Zealand manufacture, because the label of the higherpriced one made it appeafr that it had some relationship to Hobart. Take two lines of tomato sauce, one coloured bright red and the other the natural sauce colour. The former would sell dear. Though everyone knew that the red colouring was not natural they would all go for it. To Mr Robertson: They proposed to make it compulsory that net weights should in future be stated on tins and packages. They would not prevent a man from selling 14oz of jam, but they would not allow him to sell it as lib.