THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 – P.O. Box 44 Office – – – – Oxford Place THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1927. OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS. BUTTER ADULTERATION.

Putaruru Press, Volume V, Issue 176, 17 March 1927, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS. ’Phone 28 - P.O. Box 44 Office - - - - Oxford Place THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1927. OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS. BUTTER ADULTERATION.

One of the several objects for which the Dairy Export Control Board was set up was to prevent the adulteration of New Zealand butter at Home by blending with inferior butters and then selling the mixture as New Zealand butter. This inferior product has done untold harm to Dominion interests, and yet the merchants seem to regard the practice as quite legitimate, their view being that, having bought our butter, they may do as they like with it, impoverish our excellent quality by blending with otherwise f unsaleable stuff from othercountries, and then label the mixture “ New Zealand Butter.” This practice aJecords ill with the much-vaunted commercial morality of British houses; certainly, such misleading tactics would not be permitted under our “ Foods and Drugs Act ” in New Zealand.

However, it does not seem to be of much use bewailing the facts of the position. What we require to do is to bring about a remedy. The Control Board does not appear to be succeeding in this particular aim, and some more effective means must be searched for. Why should not the Empire Marketing Board take the matter up, and have regulations instituted to make the selling of all foodstuffs true to label? Thus the whole question would be settled, and every country’s products would get just that degree of support that their merits or demerits deserved. Had our Prime Minister been able to tell us of some such practical achievement as this at the Imperial Conference, there would have been some tangible benefit to give solidity to the more academic* aims accomplished. Even yet, the Control Board might endeavour to have representations made to the Empire Marketing Board in the direction indicated.—Matamata Record.