"Fine Cognac."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 6049, 14 September 1894, Page 1

"Fine Cognac."

(Lyttelton Times.) If the analysis published a little time ago of a line of " fine cognac " seized by the Customs authorities at one of the Sydney bonds may be taken as a fair description of the stuff that is sometimes sold as brandy, we may congratulate ourselves again that the New Zealand public is losing its taste for ardent spirits. This precious liquor, it seems, was not brandy at all, but an artificial preparation composed of about equal parts of partially rectified white spirit and water colored with some villainous acid. This acid Mr Hamlet, the Government Analyst, declared to be highly injurious to health, and the officers, who had the task of destroying, the dreadful stuff so thoroughly endorsed his verdict that not only did they broach every one of the casks and pour the liquor into the gutter, but they also had a detachment of the fire brigade standing by with hydrants flushing the channels to free them from pollution. There is no reason to believe that "cognac " of this character is a common article of trade in Christchurch ; but it is a little alarming to learn that 24 samples of brandy, whisky and rum obtained from as many hotels in the capital of the mother colony were all found to be "inferior," with " traces' of fusel oil and metal." There can be no very serious objection to the spirits being underproof ; but when they are discovered to be "new, raw, crude, most intoxicating arid stupifying," the customer may well hesitate to introduce such a mixture into- his - system. Fortunately competition has not yet reduced the price' of a "nip " In this country to 3d ; in Sydney, where that is the general charge in the third-rate hotel for a glass of spirits, the publicans buy whisky and brandy in bond at 2s and 3s a gallon, and the only wonder is that any of their regular customers survive to tall the ! tale.