The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1907. ADULTERATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8953, 12 June 1907, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1907. ADULTERATION.

If a statement that was made by on* of a deputation, to the Auckland City. Council on Thursday evening ia true, ' then the appeal made to the muni- ; cipal authority is more than justified. The object of the deputation was to.. support a resolution, that had been carried unanimously at an open air meeting, . and was Midi before the Council as follows : — " That the City Council be asked to receive a deputation to urge upon the Council the. importance of organising a Health Committee which would supervise the inspection of foods and beverages, anore especially the eal* and distribution of all fermented or spirituous liquors." The gentleman, who headed the deputation, Mr W» Richardson, made some startling statements. After relating the circumstances under which the resolution ha 4 taken form, he said that there were mixtures in food as well as in beverages that were inimical to *pnbli4 health, and it was the duty of HealtK Committees to have foods and " soft " as well hb "hard" drinks analysed, so that nothing should be sold calculated to undermine the public health. Making a haphazard guess that the speaker meant by " soft " and " hard " drinks those that were reputedly non-alooholio and those that made no secret of their , intoxicating character, one was prepared to read an accusation of hypocrisy hui'led at the modest " soft " drinks, but the oharges he had to make were not levelled at them. H« said that some years ago the Government undertook the work of analysis of spirituous and fermented liquors, but lately this had been dropped. H« knew that tobacco> was used to adulterate liquors, and that a cask of rum labelled " vinegar " was sent to . a Maori village adulterated with bluestone and tobacco. If this statement can be taken as true, then it is to be hoped that Mr Richardson was citing only an isolated instance"of tihe white man's criminal .greed for gain. If a tra'flfic with the Natives in the forbidden country is earned on in liquor, and hell-broth of the kind described is traded off to the unsuspecting Maori,' then the wonder is, not that the Nativ« population is decreasing, but that any of th© race survive at all. Were adulterations of tfco • kind mentioned sold to the weedy youths who form only too great a proportion of the pakeha customers of the New Zealand Boniface, the death-rate of the white population of the colony would rise by leaps and 1 bounds, and an outcry would be raised that only the hanging of somebody would still. The Mayor of Auckland however, took the speech quietly, and said there was not the slightest necessity for the resolution co far as beverages were concerned, but he was quite prepared to move in the direction of communicating with the Government to have the authority exercised that was possessed under the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Act in regard to the analysis of alcoholic liquors. As he was of opinion that anything that affected the publio health should have every consideration, he moved that the subject introduced by the deputation should be submitted to the Government, and this was carried after some discussion. Periodically there rises a clamour for inspection • and analysis of the liquor sold to the publio in licensed houses, but as a rule it is raised without any reasonable cause. He would be a fool of a publican who would tamper with his liquor in the way of deleterious adulteration, and so long as he confines his pursuit of profit to. the addition to his spirits of boiled artesian water, no fault will be found with him. Dr Stopford, another member of the deputation, was not so sensational as the first speaker, but he said a good deal that is worth thinking over. After the usual platitude that to have a healthy public there must be wholesome foods, he quoted some inte* resting figures. In 1904, he said, the infantile death-rate of Auckland was greater than that of London— lß7 against 134 — and the high death-rate in Auckland was due to dirty. milk. Dr Mason, the Chief Health Officer, whom lie quoted, attributed the deaths of 6GO New Zealand infants to dirty milk, and these figures surely pointed out the duty of public bodies to protect those whom they represented. But Auck-* land is not standing idle in the direction in which the deputation wanted it to move. Its abattoirs cost £25,000, and the purpose of these is to secure sound meat for the public. It has also taken steps towards providing a puro milk supply. • Doubtless, after the visit of the deputation, it will move also in the direction indicated by the resolution.

I EXPRESS PASSENGER LIST. ■Passengers for tho south by tho second cx-B-ess to-day: — Mr Harrison, Mr and ■ra Stevenson, Mr Morrison, Mr Marsden, ■r Sinclair, Mr "W. H. Warren and Mr Reily.