294 FRAUDULENT COMPETITION 



in imitation of butter. With this exception, the Council 

 felt that on the whole it was a satisfactory measure, pro- 

 vided that it was properly admiristered. The Act received 

 the Royal Assent on 9th August, 1899. 



Sale of Butter Regulations. 



Under the same Sec. 4 of the Act of 1899 Mr. Hanbury 

 appointed another Departmental Committee to determine 

 what deficiency of normal constituents or what addition of 

 extraneous matter or water should raise a presumption that 

 butter was not genuine. Like the last-named, this, too, was 

 an excellent Committee. Chiefly owing to the fact that this 

 Committee sat through the summer, when the Council holds 

 no meetings, the Central Chamber did not send a witness to 

 give evidence. An interim report was presented in January, 

 1902, recommending a limit of 16 per cent, as the proportion 

 of water which should be allowed in butter. The report added 

 that this proposal was made on the assumption that butter 

 containing a larger proportion than 16 per cent, would escape 

 the operation of this limit if a sufficient disclosure was made 

 to the purchaser. The Council, on 4th March, 1902, strongly 

 dissented from the last portion of the interim report, 

 urged the Board to fix a definite standard of moisture, and 

 to provide that no substance should be sold as butter which 

 did not comply with that standard. 



This view of the Council was the result of information laid 

 before them, that as much as 35 per cent, of water could be 

 left in butter, and that large quantities of water-logged butter 

 were, in fact, then on the market. They therefore asked the 

 Government to legislate at once to put a stop to the sale of 

 such substances as butter. The Central Chamber sent a 

 deputation to Mr. Hanbury on 2nd June to urge the impor- 

 tance of this question ; he entirely agreed with the views put 

 before him, and said he already had a Bill in draft to deal 

 with the matter. This Bill was found to be of little use, 

 and, though progress in Committee was reported, the Bill 

 was withdrawn in November without much regret on the part 

 of the Council. 



