2S6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September x, 1882. 



COFFEE ADULTEEATION AND THE BRITISH 

 GOVERNMENT. 



We call attention to the letter Mr. H. Pastenr has 

 addi-essed to ua, and we endorse every word of anunad- 

 version he has i)assed on the conduct of the home 

 Government. Here is the report from the London Times 

 of what took place in Parliament on the occasion to 

 which Mr. Pasteur refers : — 



Duty on Coffee. 



In Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. Courtney 

 moved the following resolution ; — " Theie shall be 

 granted and paid to Her Majesty, her heirs and suc- 

 cessors, upon every half pound weight of any article or 

 substance called by any name of cotFee or chicory, or 

 prepared or manufactured for the purpose of being in 

 imitation of or in any respect to resemble or to serve 

 as a substitute for coffee or chicory, which is sold or 

 kept for sale in the United Kingdom, and also upon 

 every half pound weight of any mi.xture of such article 

 or substance as aforesaid with coflft-e or chicory, which 

 is sold or kept for sale iu the United Kingdom, the 

 duty of excise of one penny." 



Mr. Maguiac complained of the proposal being made 

 without due notice. The imposition of the duty would 

 aid the makers of horrible compounds in selling them 

 as substitutes for coffee, of which they contained very 

 little. It was immoral to facilitate the sale of these 

 precious messes for the sake of increasing the revenue. 



Mr. Gladstone said the Treasury were concerned 

 with the collection of the revenue and not with adult- 

 eration. 



Mr. G. Russell pleaded that the compounds were 

 harmless, and were believed to be healthful, and 

 they promoted temperance. The proprietors were 

 willing to drop the name of coffee. 



Mr. Warton detected a vein of satire iu the last 

 speech, and complained of the immorality of the 

 Prime Minister's speech. 



Mr. Maoniac said it would alter matters if the 

 name of coffee were dropped. 



After further discussion the resolution was agreed 

 to and reported to the House. 



It is impossible to understand how a man so generally 

 fau- and clearsighted as Mr. Gladstone cannot see the 

 absolute injustice he has inflicted on the producers and 

 English consumers of coffee by his policy in respect 

 of chicoi7 and other coffee mixtures since 1852 onwards. 

 As Mr. Pastern' points out, tea is most carefully guarded, 

 and as a natm-al result the taste for tea has spread 

 throughout all classes in Britain, while the so-called 

 di-inkei's of coffee among the working classes do not 

 know what pure coffee means. A correspondent of the 

 Pall 3Iall Gazette, writing after Mr. Gladstone's budget 

 speech and referring to the mysterious compound sold 

 by the gi-ocers as coffee, and the Government restric- 

 tions as regards chicory being mixed with it, says : — 



"This applying tho name ' coffee' to a heterogene- 

 ous array of products confounded altogether the 

 element of price ; and one of the most valuable 

 effects of the new orders will be to restore to coffee 

 its true market price. This will greatly relieve com- 

 merce generally ; but it will, above all, relieve the 

 planter of a serious burden. In Indi.-i, in Ceylon, 

 and in the West Indies millions of pounds sterling 

 are invested in the industry of coffee-growing, and 

 profitable employment is afforded for hundreds of 

 thousands of English citizens. To free such an in- 

 dustry from the trammels of most unfair compet- 

 ition is only to perform a utglected duty towards a 

 large and enlerpriziug class of iudustrial workers, " 



This ultra-Liberal journal, it seems, has been making 

 a strong stand against the extreme vdews of certain 

 Free-traders; for we read fm-ther iu the Produce Mar- 

 kets' Review : — 



In an article in the Pall Mall Oazelte, headed 

 "The Language of Trade," the following remarks 

 occur ; and it would be interesting to know what the 

 writer thought of coffee when qualified with the 

 adjective "French" and "improved" by the addition 

 of 50 to 90 per cent, of Chicory : — " In these days 

 of free-trade one must view with considerable con- 

 cern a tendency that has come into active existence of 

 late years to abuse the power of language for classi- 

 fying commodities for the purposes of trade. Every 

 day we are learning that the vitalizing competition, 

 which has so improved the legitimate relations of 

 production aud consumption, is now driving men to 

 ' improve' the quantity as well, by the addition and 

 the substitution of totally foreign products under 

 the one established name. Every now and again 

 consumers are forced to protest, and to act in 

 their own defence. They have quite recently 

 been urging, with reason, the complaint why, when 

 they ask for coffee, they should have given to them 

 stones of dates and pips of figs — why, when they 

 order butter, they are to have foisted upon them lard 

 or dripping ? And within the last tew days we have 

 learned that Americans have devised a means of 

 utilizing skim-milk by combining it with a suffioi- 

 eucy ol lard to form that we are told is " an ex- 

 cellent imitation of American cheddar. " This may 

 not be saying much for American cheddar, but the 

 English consumer is none the less threatened with a 

 commodity that it is to be known to commerce as 

 " imitation factory cheese." Cheese we know, and 

 like, as being the "exclusive product of the milk of 

 animals." Factory cheese we know, and suspect. But 

 what of this "imitation factory cheese," made up, 

 apparently, of the discarded refuse of all-milk cheese 

 thickened with a variety of animal fats ?" 



In elucidation of the reference to "French coffee" 

 we find the following in the Home and Colonial Mail : — 



It need now be no longer a matter for speculation 

 as to how a firm designating itself the Loudon and 

 Newcastle Tea Compauy can afford to give away with 

 every pound of tea sold a "handsome preaeut," for a 

 case tried before Sheriff' Russell here on Tuesday re- 

 veals what a large amount of profit the Company has 

 by the sale of at least one article, viz : — coffee. The 

 Compauy are the retailers of what is known by the 

 public as " Game's French Coffee," and the article is 

 manufactured iu Manchester by a Mr. Pearson. This 

 gentleman was examined in the Sheriff Court here on 

 Tuesday, and in cross-examination, after hesitation, 

 revealed the fact that Mr. Game, the head partner of 

 the London and Newcastle Tea Company, was supplied 

 by him with the article already nieutioned at the low 

 price of 9^d per lb. , for which Mr. Game's firm charged 

 Is 4d, thus realizing a profit of Oid ou each lb. sold. 

 This is trading at a rate somewhere like 33 per cent. 

 The profit would be even greater, aud the value 

 of the article is even less, when it is taken into 

 consideration that the packing of the article in tins 

 costs 21d. Now that this is an excessive profit for 

 any retailer will be admitted on all bauds ; and if 

 the case served a good purpose at all, it served this, 

 that the pulilic are now iu a position of knowing 

 what they purchase when they go into a shop and 

 ask for "Game's French Coffee." It is certainly diffic- 

 ult to obtain a conviction under the 6th section of 

 the Food and Drugs Act, when the purchaser has 

 been supplied with an article not of the nature sub- 

 tance, or quality of the article demanded ; and the 

 ouly way thatit will be fossible to put a stop to the 

 jQTer-a«duiteratiou of coffee, mustard, &c., with bther 



