§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Secretary to the Treasury, If it be the fact that some 7,000 boxes of tea from Shanghai have recently been condemned as unfit for consumption in this Country; if it be the fact that the wholesale tea dealers have memorialised the Commissioners of Customs, asking for more rigid enforcement of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, on account of the extent of adulteration prevailing'; if any steps are being taken to have not only the teas that may arrive, but those now in bond, examined for adulteration; and, if tea that is condemned as unfit for use in this Country is invariably destroyed, or if it is ever permitted to be re-exported to other Countries?
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSONSir, the number of packages of tea condemned since the 1st of January is 3,327. A Memorial from the wholesale tea dealers was received by the Board of Customs on the 13thinstant, and it prayed the Board to strictly enforce—not more strictly enforce—the provisions of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. All the teas imported and warehoused in this country are examined by the Inspector of teas, and are only destroyed when, being imported for consumption in this country, they are pronounced to be unfit for human food, and then they are always destroyed.