The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1908. FOOD AND DRUGS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8, 27 February 1908, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1908.

FOOD AND DRUGS

fOWPER blistered with hot comment the coifrscienceless wight who ' Stamps God's name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade '. The author of • The Task- would probably have raised the temperature of his metrical invective had he been acquainted with the w.iles aiud, ways of the adulterating manufacturer of our 'day. This lineal descendant of the "old professional poisoner waltos abroad in our day with his head high among his fellows ,; he secures kniglfothoods and peerages from time to time ; and, although he probably slays a hundred where the seventeenth century ' practitioner ' slew one, he would, no doubt, take dire offence at being classed with such lewd criminals o£ the deadly cup as a Viscount Rochester, a Glaser, aLa Spara, or a Lavoisin. Our Sale of Food and Drugs Act represents a sei'ious effort io cope with the arts of those who, in order lto turn a penny in the way. of trade', fraudulently adulterate almost every article^-that Is destined for human sustenance, and for the relief -of the many ills that flesh is foe&r to. The regulations just framed under the Act should, if carried out, provide ample protection against the arts of the modem representatives of Dame Tofianda. Definitions are provided for the various foods and drugs, and standards of purity are detailed in eaclh. case with commendable stringency and minuteness. No room for controversy is thus left open, the quantity of ash being, for instance, fixed in- the case of bread, and the use of alum therein, and of any preservative substance but sugar In (say) preserved fruits, being absolutely prohibited. The standards of purity have also been, raised in connection with various, foods. The percentage of milk-fat in milk has, for instance, . been increased from 3to 3.25 per cent v while the cheaper and commoner grades of tea will no longer be able to get past, the barrier: of the Dominion' Customs. A commendable, and we hope successful,, . -stand .is thus being made by the Dominion "to copewjih one of "the most danigerous'forms of the wholesale fraud which permeates so much of the commercial -life of our "day.