ADULTERATION OF BUTTER 291 



Paget, showed a total of 1694 prosecutions and 1464 convic- 

 tions during the years 1888-91, under the Margarine Act, 

 Attention was called to the laxity of local authorities in 

 enforcing existing enactments against the sale of margarine 

 as butter, and gave a list of places in which no samples of 

 butter had been taken for analysis during 1890. The report 

 went on to recommend that travelling inspectors should be 

 appointed by the Local Government Board or the Board of 

 Trade, whose duty it should be to -enforce the Acts, and to 

 institute prosecutions in cases of adulteration or fraud ; 

 that the artificial colouring of margarine in imitation of 

 butter should be prohibited ; and that the Committee should 

 be empowered to draft a Bill to amend the Margarine Act. 



During 1893 the Committee met several times, and sketched 

 in outline a Bill to amend that Act. Hearing, however, that 

 Mr. (afterwards the Right Hon. Sir Horace) Plunkett was 

 drafting a Bill to deal with this question, they deferred making 

 any report to the Council until March, 1894, when they 

 reported that all the points they had agreed upon had been 

 incorporated by Mr. Plunkett in his Bill, which he introduced 

 in the House of Commons in 1893. This Bill making no pro- 

 gress, the Council asked for the appointment of a Select Com- 

 mittee to inquire into the whole question of the adulteration 

 of dairy products. In May, 1894, the Chairman (Mr. F. A. 

 Channing, M.P.) reported to the Council that he had moved 

 for the appointment of such a Committee, that his motion 

 had been accepted by the President of the Local Government 

 Board, that the Select Committee had been appointed and 

 included himself, Mr. A. F. Jeffreys, M.P., and Mr. Plunkett 

 among its members. This Committee called several wit- 

 nesses, including Mr. Christopher Middleton and Mr. Carring- 

 ton Smith from the Central Chamber, and recommended that 

 they be re-appointed the next session to carry their inquiry 

 further. 



This Select Committee was re-appointed in 1895, and again 

 in 1896, and issued its report during the autumn of the 

 latter year. This report was a most important document. 

 It dealt with many articles of food other than dairy products, 



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