MARGARINE AS BUTTER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 591, 20 August 1909, Page 8

MARGARINE AS BUTTER.

BILL TO PREVENT IMITATION' IN , : ; ; COLOUR., : . .■ , While, there is Almost universal agreement ,that margarine should , not' lio sold '.as' butter. (says the London "Standard" of Juno 22), opinion continues to bo divided on the question of allowing it to be so prepared as not to be readily distinguished from;,butter. ,The subject was discussed; by Standing.jGoriif. mitteo 33 of the Houso of Commona/yester- ! day on tho Sale of Margarine Bill, 'which has ■ .been brought'in by Mr.'Kilbride. .c ' '• The object of the Bill is to prevent, margarine. from being so coloured as to resem■bio butter, and thus to prevent/its .fraiidulent salo as such.; Mr. Byles Gought>'to'bavo' '• Clauso 1, the operative clause,'deleted, but by 23 vote's to 13 tho committed decided tliat the clauso should stand part of the Bill. Mr. Byles'put in an ingenious plea for tho right';to imitate so long as fraud was notpractised on the purchaser. . He, said that ; ladies v.-ho could not afford 'a . ; silk: dress - wore mercerised cotton, arid he did not think they _ should bo prevented from buying, such an imitation.. Somewhat inconsistently, however, lie cited a case in which ho was himself actually' the victim of fraud. He-bought on the kerbstone a penny bunch ■ of .violets, and'.afterwards found-that, they :■ wero made of paper ! *, r: .' ■ !

Mr. Seaverns argued that the Bill wjisumnecessarv because there was abundant; legislation already to prevent margarine beiM •sold as butter. Margarine' .was? ;not ' sold' merely to privato consumers. ' The London County Council had made a contract for £5800 worth to be delivered-in Six--months, and the Admiralty and .War. Office-bought large quantities. Mr. Georgo Harwood said that the peoplo guilty of fraud were not those' who'manu-' . factored margarine, but'thoseVwMo bought margarine' and mixed it'with butter. .Tho Bill would be utterly futile. - Mr. 1\ W. Russell described the. Bill as an extraordinary'one, but said that the,'circumstances were extraordinary. This was the'view which' the majority of the commititee took. Henco tho approval of. the first clause. ■ /"