WHAT LONDON EATS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8376, 24 July 1905, Page 2

WHAT LONDON EATS.

ADULTERATION OF .MILK BY

ALIEN TRADERS.

Tlia supply of meat to the Smithfield, Market during 1904 amounted to 410,019 tons, of which 1556 tons were condemned.

Among the seizures recorded by Dr Collingridge in his annual report are 10 322 rabbits out of one consignment from- Australia. In another case a be? inroioed as rabbits was found to contain immature kids dressed as rabbits. They were consigned from a small trader in the Netherlands, who had intended to send a hurfdred weekly. During last year 243,806 tons of fish were delivered at Billingsgate, of which 1098 tons were condemned. With regard to the milk supply, Dr Collingridge reports one m every thirteen samples examined was either impoverished, adulterated, or both. " This figure would have been much lower but for one disturbing factor— the stranger within our gates, the alien trader.

" The percentage of adulteration was one in twelve among foreigners as against one in twenty-one of our own people. These facts are instructive as bearing on a question that is much exercising the public mind." Though from ten to fifteen thousand oysters are sold daily during the season in the City of London, no illness attributed to eating them was reported last year.