DECISION RESERVED

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 117, 14 April 1930, Page 8

DECISION RESERVED

CREAM CASE EVIDENCE. USE OF PRESERVATIVE. WANGANUI, April 14. Decision was reserved on Saturday in the adjourned case in which Matthew Leo Rogers, manager of the Ruahinc-Rangi-ivaliia Co-operative Dairy Company, was charged that, on December 16, 1929, ho sold to tho Maoriland Dairy Company, of Wanganui, cream which contained potassium bichromato, a preservative which, if taken in a sufficiently strong dose, would poison a human being. , ~ The Magistrate, Mr J. H. Salmon, said at tho conclusion that tho case had covered a considorablo amount of evidence. lie proposed, therefore, to put his decision in writing. This would bo available on Monday or Tuesday. Tho police caso was conducted by Chief Detective J. Walsh, .Mr i-<. Cohen, with him Mr G. W. Currie, represented tho defendant. ' , At tho adjournment on April 5 tho defendant Rogers, fainted while being crossexamined by Detective Walsh as to whether ho would have accepted tho cream, 15 days old, which tho detective said Rogers had sent to tho Maoriland factory. Continuing, defendant answered that ho did not accept any cream under second grade. ' Detectivo Walsh i What was the condition of this cream ? , Defondant: It was lowor than second Walsh: That cream would bo in a pretty bad state? . " Defendant: I would presumo that it was sour. , . , It would bo pretty rotten, would it not . Well, not exactly. It would have a bit cf mould on tho top of it. That cream would bo sour? —Yes. Was it fit for human consumption? Well, I do not know. It just depends on the grader. Was it fit for human consumption?

In my opinion it was not. You were not using preservative at that timo ?

No. , , Referring to a threatened exposuro by tho Maoriland Company Detectivo Walsh asked: In what way could tho Maoriland Company expose you or do you harm i I did not know. , _ . ... ' You were not at all perturbed by that, then? .. . Defendant replied that when a diroctor told him of tho Maoriland Company’s intention ho thought it very funny. You did not think it funny enough to prevent you trying to "put it across ’ tho Maoriland Company, directly after ?

I took all precautions. I put it to you that tho preservative was placed in those bottles in the first place ? Absolutely not. , If factory managers of 12 and of 30 years experience said that cream samples fifteen days old would bo rotten, would you contradict them ? 1 would. Defondant stated to further questions that ho thought tho maggots on McKoen s cream came from tho- cowshed. There were two different kinds of maggots. You find that a. better test can bo made with no preservative ? I found that. You still swear that you were not using preservative in November or December, 1929? I do.

Why did you specially instruct your assistant not to put preservative in those •amples ? ' , I thought ho might make a mistake. How do you suggest that this poison got into tho cream ? I cannot say. Tho analyst’s' report shows the cream to have the acidity of fresh cream. The putting in of that preservative in the rotten cream would not return that cream to acidity of fresh cream?

No. You cannot account for the low acidity found by the export at Hawera? I havo tested cream at iny own factory ten days old with tho preservative not there, and it had an acidity of .3. Gilbert Alexander Lawrenco, F.1.C., analyst, of Wellington, identified a cream sample bottle received by him on March 31 from a firm of Wellington solicitors. Tho bottle was marked ‘/preservative suspected.” Ho analysed . tno contents for every kind of preservative ho know. Mr Cohen produced a certificate from witness which stated that no preservative was present in tho sample, although it was m a highly putrefied state. John Every Oakden, sharemilker, of Rangiwahia, said that ho was at the factory on tho evening of December 23. Rogers asked him to tako and keep a sample bottle oi cream. Ho was told that there was trouble ■ over some cream to Maoriland. The sample was sent to Mr Cohen on March 26. Witness Was instructed by Rogers to keep it and not say anything to anyone. Mr L. Cohen, lawyer, of Wanganui, said that on March 26 ho received a registered letter and a packet from Mr Oakden. Ho sealed a bottle which tho packet contained. It was sent to solicitors in Wellington with instructions for it to be analysed. ’I ho Government analyst declined to do the analysis. They recommended Mr H. W. Lawrence.

Harold Wililam Hayter, assistant manager at Rangiwahia factory, gavo ovidenco. Detective Walsh: You do keep potos•ium bichromato in tho factory quito accessible to Mr Rogers.

Witness: Yes. . You did not put the cream into tho bottles? No.

Were you present when Mr Rogers put tho first lot of cream into tho bottles ? No.

You say that this cream was not sour and bad 1 Yes. Porcy Robinson, roadman at Rangiwahia, told the court that Rogers came to him some time in November of last year asking for the loan of a can. 110 loaned him a three-gallon can. The number 70 was stamped on tho can, on tho float and on tho lid. Tho can produced in court witness said was not his. Tho float wa3 not his, but tho' lid was. Tho can produced was returned to him from the factory. Claude Smith, cream supplier at Rangiwahia, said that he . had had one can of cream rejected from the Rangiwahia factory in August of the 1928-29 season. Ho sent it to the Maoriland Company, who accepted it. It was, he thought, graded “first.” Ho know that there was a known flavour in tho cream. He -supplied cream onco a week for two or throo months. Ho would not have used tho kerosene flavoured cream for his own family. The Magistrate then reserved his decision. __