ADULTERATED COW-JUICE.

NZ Truth, Issue 93, 30 March 1907, Page 5

ADULTERATED COW-JUICE.

TWO MILK-OS FINED.

It appears to be the practice of a great many milk-o people to adulterate their cow- juice with boric acid m order to make it "keep." It is evidently the best preservative known, ' but the practice of using it m this direction is a most pernicious one, and 1 is a breach; of the Act. , A Ohristctourch cove named Thomas McOallum has just found :fehat out. He was charged this wei?k with adulterating, his juice v that way, and he pleaded 'guilty. Lawyer Cassidy .said the offence wasn't a serious one. No water had been mixed with the milk, and there was a general impression among dairymen that it was >qiuite permissible* The defendant hadn't been -trying to act, meanly towards his customers by increasing the bulk of the stuff, and they .didn't suffer. Lawyer : Stringer, who prosecuted, told the Bench that the best medical opinion was to the effect that boric acid had no effect? on healthy adults, but it did on infants and invalids. It' was most dangerous to infants, m fact, especially /if they \srere continuously fed on .milk. (The serious thing] about the matter was. that it concealed any .decomposition which may have set m. Lovely. Magisstrate. Bishop then let this cowsnanker off with a fine of a couple of quid, A charge of a different nature was preferred; against another cow-devil named William Richardsselling impure milk for human consumption. It was explained by ,Mr Stringer that they didn't 'ask for a heavy penalty, because the milk in*' question hadn't been properly mixed ; with the lnntter fat. This mysterious process, whatever It might be, wasn't nuite understood by the Court, but at all events it has something to do with improving the Quality of the milk. But as the public want their cow-juice *|uite pure, aid as the legislature recognised this fact* when it drew up its Bovine Act, it was mado an offence. The S.M. remarked-, that, he wasn't at all inclined to deal lenicmtly with cases of this- sort when they were proved. It was such a mean, contemptible offence— a most dangerous offence. He would impose a fine of 20s and costs*