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that the milk was watered. There was two per cent. of cream there-a low percentage.
For the defence. Mr. Dennys said this was net a case with which the Court could deal and proceeded to explain that the local Ordinance, 4 of 1890, referred to "tainted, adulterated, or unwholesome food," which was totally different from the Act of Parliament in England, which referred to adulterated food or to things which were not what they purported to be. The local Ordinance referred only to unwholesome and hurtful things and could not be applied to this case. Very necessary precautions were taken in England, but such was not the case here, and it was the easiest thing in the world for a-person to add six per cent. of water into a bottle of milk. The Ordinance could not be taken as the equivalent of the English Acts referring to the sale of food and drugs.
His Worship pointed out that under section & the definition was taken from the English Acts. Mr. Dennys said he quite admitted that milk was included, but the whole object of the Ordinance was to prevent the sale of tainted and unwholesome food. Surely it could not be said that milk is unwholesome even if six per cent, of water was added.
His Worship-You are not charged with selling unwholesome or tainted food, but with selling adulterated milk.
Mr: Dennys submitted that it was not adul- teration simply to put a harmless liquid with milk. Speaking as to the facts Mr. Dennys pointed out that Mr. Kennedy had been in the colony twenty-seven years. He had cows of overy kind and a man to superintend the milking of them. That man, whose name was Hill, would say that the milk was first put into small galvanized buckets, then into larger buckets, when it was locked up in the cow house by him, and he handed the key to the watchman, who after wards handed it to Silva. Both Hill and Silva would say that no water whatever was added to the milk, and be (Mr. Dennys) thought his Worship would not have the least doubt that the milk was in exactly the sama stata as when it came from the cone.
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Hill and Silva were then called as witnesses. Hill said he saw all the cows milked and he swore there was no water in any of the buckets or in the room in which the milk was after wards placed. Silva explained that he bottled the milk and no water whatever was added. Every precaution was taken to prevent adultera tion. Every morning he received from the watchman the key of the dairy in which the milk was placed.
Hill was recalled by his Worship and said that during the last month Mr. Kennedy had had six extra cows, and he believed that during the last two months about seventeen cows had been added to the stock. There had been an increased demand for milk since the outbreak at Pokfulam, and Mr. Kennedy had been obliged to refuse many orders. Before the outbreak the supply of milk had sometimes been greater than the demand, and as many as fifty bottles of milk had been left.
Mr. Dennys said the watchman was not pre- sent in court and as he would like to call him, as well as the attendants at the dairy at the Mics Works, where some cows were kept, he would like an adjournment. He wished to show the bona fides on the part of Mr. Kennedy, who took every precaution to prevent adulteration. This was a very serious matter for Mr. Kennedy, who wished the matter to be thoroughly investigated.
His Worship adjourned the case antil next morning at eleven o'clock and in the meantime he would, he said, think over the evidence.
At the Police Court on the 2nd April the heat ing was resumed before Mr. T. Sercombe Smith of the charge against Mr. J. Kennedy of selling adalterated milk. Mr. Dennys defended. Fur ther witnesses for the defence were called.
Mr. David Kennedy said-I have assisted my brother in the dairy for the past thirteen years. During the last few months I have been living at the horse repository and dairy at Causeway Bay. There is also an establishment at the Mica Works, where the cattle are kept under observation. On the 11th March I landed six oows at the Mica Works. Ten others had been landed in February and on the 26th of that month they were taken to Causeway Bay. On the 25th March. I arrived at the Mica Works.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND at three o'clock in the morning and the six cows there were milked. The milk was placed into ordinary milking buckets and then was put into one milk can, which I looked myself. There was no water in the milking buckets or can. Iput the can into the trap, drove into Causeway Bay, and put the oan with three others, and sent them to the Garden Road establishment. One key is kept by me at Causeway Bay and the other is kept by Silva at Garden Road. We sell only our own milk to customers. Other milk was bought for the calves and for making butter, but that milk was not sold or put into bottle. I have had experience of dairy work in England. The food here is, quite different from that given in England. The principal food in Hongkong is bran, and so the milk is not of the same quality bere as it is in England. The milk is thinner here..
[April 9, 1896
he says he knows nothing whatever about milk from Australian cows. This milk was taken from Australian, cows of different breeds and- Mr. Crow knows nothing whatever from actual practical analysis about the milk from these cows, and therefore I submit that your Worship cannot possibly convict the defendant on that evidence. I do not think I need go into the ques tion asked of the inspector as to his having had some bad feeling in this matter, except to show that his evidence, cannot be relied upon as accurate. He came here and swore positively that he gave the identical bottle in Court to the coolie, who took it into the place and returned with the same bottle. The coolie flatly, con.. tradicted him and said it was not the same bottle. That only shows a certain amount of animus on the part of the inspector in charge of the case. But of course. I cannot ask your By his Worship I had five years' experience Worship to decide the case on that ground at on my brother's dairy in England. At the all, and I ask you whether there is any evidence Garden Road repository there are Jerseys, on which the defendant can be convicted of a, Ayrshires, half-bred Aryshires, half-bred Short-criminal offence. Here is a man who has been horns, Alderneys, Holsteins. They were all in the colony twenty-seven years, and not a imported from Australia; there are no Chinese single complaint. has been made against him cows. There are some half-bred Indian Jersey during the whole of that time in reference to COWS. The milk from the different cows is his milk: He is charged criminally before, you mixed together. I have never had the milk and is not allowed to give evidence. He is analysed myself, but I know it has been analysed charged here as a criminal simply because Mr. at the military hospital and declared to be Craw says he thinks six per cent, of skater. all right. The milk was analysed when the has been added to the milk. I have called contract for milk for the military hospital was evidence to show that no water could have been made. I do not know what is the usual pec- added and I think your Worship will agree centage of water in milk.
with me that Mr. Kennedy has done everything George Bayford, foreman at the Causeway he could to bring the whole of the facts before Bay establishment, said-On the morning of the Court. I thought it only right to mention the 25th March there were sixty-seven cows at the buffalo milk, which is used for making Causeway Bay. I saw them milked into small butter and feeding the calves with, and the galvanized buckets, and the milk was after-witnesses have sworn positively that the milk wards put into three large tins, which I im- is not sold to customers, and it does not go mediately looked, when they were put into the out of the place except as butter. I ask your van and sent to Garden Road. No water was Worship not to brand Mr. Kennedy with put into the buckets or cans.
having committed a breach of this Ordinance. It is a very serious charge indeed, and ought to be supported in the fullest and most thorough manner before he is convicted. I called atten tion to the home Acts simply to show what is done in England before a man can be convicted In England a purchaser has to declare at the time that he is going to submit bis purchase for analysis and a portion is retained by the seller to give him an opportunity of having it analysed by his own people. That has to be done before there can be a conviction, and I submit that we should not bring in a local Ordinance referring to tainted and putrid food to apply to a bottle of milk which contains only six per cent. of added water?an infinitesimal amount.
Fan Tsan, the watchman at Garden Road stables, spoko to seeing the milking of the cows from 2.30 to 4 o'clock a.m. on the 25th ult. After the milk was put in the milk-house Hill gare him the key, which he handed to Silva. Nobody but Silva opened the milk-house. Mr. Kennedy only sold his own milk. He bought buffalo milk, but this was used for making butter and feeding the calves.
By his Worship-The buffalo milk was. kept in the milk-house, bat in a separate vessel. This milk came from Wanchai and was brought in covered buckets. There was buffalo milk on the premises on the 25th ult Only. Mr. Kennedy's own milk was bottled. The milk room is divided into separate compartments and the buffalo milk is kept in one compartment and the other milk in another compartment.
Mr. Dennys now ask your Worship to take Mr. Kennedy's own statement.
His Worship I am sorry, but I cannot do that. I am not allowed to.
Mr. Denny-Of course he is the only per- son who can speak absolutely as to the facts with reference to the cows he has bought and the amount of milk he has to supply his customers with, and I think your Worship has the power to take his statement on oath However, I will not press that. I ask you to consider what I said yesterday with reference to this Ordinance, which is not at all on the same lines as the home Act, and if the defendant is charged here ander this Ordinance it must be that he has sold goods calculated to injure the consumer. I ask your Worship to consider that in this case-suppose you hold against me with reference to the application of the Or- dinance--no case has been made out. The only evidence you have before you upon which you can rely is the evidence of Mr. Crow and what he says is" I have analysed this milk and in my opinion at least six per cent, of water has been added." He cannot give you any grounds for this opinion whatever→
His Worship--Oh, yes he has.
Mr. Dennys-Except, if your Worship will pardon me, there is an absence of a certain amount of insoluble matter. “I think the proper amount of water is 83 per cent." he says; here I find 89 per cent." He gives us---
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His Worship-The reason he gave is" It contains 8.01 of non-fatty solids; the amount of fat is low, and the inorganic matter is low, too." Mr. Dennys-Yes, those are his reasons. But
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His Worship-The evidence in this case. shows that on the 25th March a bottle of milk was bought at Mr. Kennedy's repository in Garden Road, and that it was taken to the Government Analyst, who received" it with seal unbroken, and bearing the name "J Kennedy, Hongkong Dairy." I am satisfied that the bottle of milk produced is the bottle bought from Mr. Kennedy that morning. Now section 4 of Ordinance 23 of 1890 deals with four classes of food-tainted unwholesome, adulterated, and unfit for use. The meaning of adulteration in regard to milk must be that the milk contains constituents which are not normal in milk. In Mr. Crow's evidence he says that in his opinion the milk contains six per cent. of added water. He first said “I am of opinion that the milk contains six per cent. of added water." In another place he says, "It does not contain the amount of wholesome con- stituents that good milk should contain." Later on he says, "I say there is added water," and hẹ gives as his reason, "It contains only 8.01 of non-fatty solids, the amount of fat is low, and the amount of inorganic matter is low, too." In another place he says, "It contains two per cent. of cream-s low percentage." I have it there fore proved by scientific analysis that the milk in question is adulterated milk. Now against that there is the hard fact that. I have the ori dence of persons in the employ of Mr. Kennedy, who tell me the course of the operation of milk. ing and the various stages gone through, and that that morning no water got into the milk and that none of the sus contained water. But against that I have the very strong fact, scienti. fically proved, that the milk does contain water, that it contains six per cent, of added water, that is, water that did not get there by accident,
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