THE TRAIL Of THE VARNISHED HAM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 61, 13 March 1908, Page 6

THE TRAIL Of THE VARNISHED HAM.

"Oil, for the touch of a varnished liain, and the sound of a pig that is # still!" The pigs had been still a long time, so long that somebody had deemed /it prudent to batten down the wild aroma with varnish. Counsel for S. H. Cousins, the defendant at Masterton, pleaded ihat his client was a "poor raa«." On defendant's

long if he bought ham/ at 2^d alb,' and retailed them at 6d. He in-1 vested £20 on putrid ,meat, and stood to get a gross returri : of about £53— r>ota ; bad profit on the varnish. This 'person knew a trick even better than the alleged Yankee who was credited with foisting wooden, hams upon a distant, unsuspecting public, but the wood was not unhealthy. The buyers of Cousins's hams stood two chances of being poisoned—one with the varnish and the. other with the corrupt; meal. It is pleasing, therefore, t|> hear that the Court discouraged the' '" poor man " with a £10 fine. Some amateur distributers of; even-handed I justice might go further ancj suggest that a more mete punishment for the poor, but'not honest man, would be solitary confinement on a diet of the hams which he tried to pass on to the public. The police should not be. content to allow the tri.il, of the yarn ished ham to stop at Cousins. They should Hrace the smellful articles to their source; tne/task should not be difficult. Where did Cousins buy lhat £20... consignment? Are the wholftsale^yendors to escape?— Post.