TRICKS IN TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 104, 3 May 1926, Page 8

TRICKS IN TRADE

MERCHANDISE MARKS ACT

MISDESCBIPTION OF NEW ZEA-

LAND MEAT,

The Meat Producers Board has just received an interesting report from its London manager referring to a case which he has been investigating, -where meat was wrongfully retailed as "New Zealand." Extracts from this letter read as follow: —"I have to advise that ray attention was dra- m two or three weeks ago to an advertisement of a store advertising Canterbury lamb: Legs lOd, shoulders 9d, loins Bd. These prices were practically belowwholesale cost, and I at once sent an officer to investigate, and I enclose a copy of his report to me on the result. j "You will see from the report that this ! was a clear case of wrongful retailing, as the salesman definitely sold to our officer Argentine lamb branded with their indelible stamp for Canterbury lamb. In addition to the advertisement, our officer had the evidence of the Argentine ticket which he took from the carcass. "The whole of the circumstances were reported to the solicitors for the New Zealand Government to take action, but I regret to say that after they had taken the opinion of eminent counsel, they advised the High Commissioner that it would be useless going on with the case, as we could only proceed against them on a fraudulent sale, and under this section it is absolutely necessary that an invoice or description in writing be obtained. This point has been tested by- the Appeal Court, and it had no hesitation in saying we should lose our case./ "This goes to show how impossible it will be to obtain any conviction under the Merchandise Marks Act for fraudulent .mle, and at my suggestion Sir James Allea. has written fully, giving the facts of the case, to the President of the Board of Trade, Sir P. Cun-liffe-Lister, showing the necessity for an amendment of the present Act. The King's Speech at the opening of Parliament recently indicated that a new Merchandise Marks Bill will be brought in by the Government very shortly, and if the proposals of the Imperial Economic Committee are carried out in framing this Bill, it will throw the responsibility on to every retailer to clearly mark his goods with the country of origin. This will make it very much easier for us to obtain a prosecution. "While we were placing the facts of the above ease before our lawyers, the newspapers reported the prosecution of a housewife in the suburbs of London against a butcher for supplying Argentine chilled beef for Euglish homekilled. This information was laid by the housewife herself under the-Pure Food and Drugs Act. . . . The case was not nearly so strong as the evidence we had in our case. This was the first I had ever heard of a prosecution under this Act, and our solicitors were very surprised when I brought this case before them, as evidently they had no knowledge that we can prosecute under this Act. Under this Act it is not necessary to ask for a certificate, but merely to make a sale and take delivery, and prove that the goods were not as verbally described. Now that we have this knowledge, it will be an easier thing to obtain a prosecution, as it was practically impossible to obtain a prosecution- unclsi-, the Merchandise Marks Act."