50 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 



Appended to the report was the opinion of Risley, Quin & Perry, to the effect that the 

 Dairy Commissioner was authorized to employ such counsel as he deemed necessary, and 

 that he was not justified in casting the burden of this special litigation upon the Attorney- 

 General. 



In conclusion, Commissioner Brown says : 



" From these statements it appears that there have been two hundred and sixty-three 

 actual criminal prosecutions instituted and fifty civil suits brought for penalties for violations 

 of the statute with the enforcement of which I am charged. 



"A penalty of $100 has been paid without suit in sixteen different cases. In this con- 

 nection it should be stated that evidence of violations of the statutes mentioned has been 

 obtained in something over two hundred different cases, principally for violations of the milk 

 sections of the statute, upon which, as yet, no complaints have been made or proceedings 

 actually commenced. 



" Under Section 19 of Chapter 183, Laws of 1885, civil suits may be brought by the 

 Dairy Commissioner to recover penalties therein fixed in addition to the fines to be imposed 

 in criminal proceedings against offenders, not less than five hundred such suits might have 

 been brought within the tWelve months last past ; but it was deemed unwise and unsafe to 

 plunge the State into such enormous litigation until the courts has passed upon some of the 

 cases now pending. If the Dairy Commissioner is in duty bound to bring suits for penalties 

 in all those cases, it will be seen that his time must of necessity be pretty fully occupied. If 

 suits for these penalties are only to be brought, in such cases as the Commissioner shall deem 

 proper, that officer will often be charged with favoritism and injustice however faithfully and 

 wisely he may discharge his official duty in the matter. Whether the statute can be amended 

 so as to relieve the Commissioner from such a serious responsibility and protect the State 

 against the unwise use of such unlimited discretion or power without taking from the Com- 

 missioner the authority which he needs in order to vigorously enforce the laws, is a question 

 for the Legislature in its wisdom to determine. 



"In the foregoing statement made by Assistant Commissioner Van Valkenburgh, it 

 appears that, in several instances, cases made against manufacturers and wholesale dealers in 

 imitation butter were presented to the grand jury, and indictments were refused. I am 

 informed that such refusal was placed upon the ground that those parties made and sold the 

 article for what it really was and not for genuine dairy butter. 



"Civil suits have been brought against several of these persons, but the cases not being 

 of the class of preferred causes, they have not yet been reached, although we hope to bring 

 them to trial very soon. Large numbers of retail dealers were continually selling imitation 

 butter to the people for the genuine, and I have proceeded with all the vigor and force practi- 

 cable to cause the arrest and punishment of all this class of offenders, and at the same time 

 pushing forward as rapidly as possible the cases against manufacturers and wholesalers. 



" It is further shown in the foregoing documents and statements that the sum of $53,403.80 

 have been expended up to March I, 1886. To this sum must be added, to show the entire 

 sum expended and incurred, and which is not called for by the resolution nor stated herein, 

 the salary and expenses of the Commissioner, the traveling and other expenses of the assistant 

 commissioners, agents, experts, etc., in the performance of their official duties, amounts paid 

 for suspected samples purchased, for chemicals, apparatus, etc., necessarily purchased, for 

 postage, printing and other necessary incidental expenses, as audited and allowed by the 

 Comptroller, which will increase the sum above stated by several thousand dollars. 



" For the further information of the Senate, I have annexed the retocopies of the opinion 

 of the court in the case of The People vs. Daniel Kerin, and also in the case of The People vs. 

 Benjamin J, Hill, both of which were decided at the General Term of the Supreme Court, 

 First Department, January, 1886." 



