IRISH CREAMERIES AND DAIRY PRODUCE BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 19 March 1912)

§ THE PAYMASTER-GENERAL (LORD ASHBY ST. LEDGERS)

My Lords, I ask leave to submit for First Reading a Bill dealing with the important butter industry in Ireland. Your Lordships will no doubt be aware that the creameries in Ireland produce a very large percentage—roughly one-half—of the total output of butter, and Irish creamery butter has enjoyed a high reputation. Perhaps on that account it has been subjected to various frauds in both England and Ireland, and owing to the absence of any statutory definition of what creamery butter is, it has been found impossible to secure convictions in the Courts for those frauds under the Merchandise Marks Act. The first thing to do is to clearly establish a definition, and that is done in the Bill. The definition follows the recommendation of a Departmental Committee which sat during the years 1908 and 1909. The definition secures that creamery butter must be manufactured from cream which has been separated from milk on premises registered as a creamery or cream separating station by means of centrifugal force applied by mechanical power, or which has been supplied from a registered cream-separating station. That defines what Irish creamery butter is.

541 Clause 2 provides for the registration of creameries, and such a register will be kept by the Department of Agriculture in Ireland. Then there are certain conditions under which creameries can be registered. I may say that all existing creameries will be entitled to be registered, so that no hardship should arise in regard to any existing creamery. There is another thing which has militated very much against the butter industry in Ireland. It arises from the fact that during some months of the year there is very little milk to be obtained in Ireland owing to the absence of winter dairies, and many of the creameries have been forced to close; but some creameries have resorted to the practice of importing foreign and colonial butter, or even of purchasing butter from the farmers in the market, and issuing that butter without a proper description indicating that it is not butter made in the creamery and not really creamery butter at all. The Bill will provide that it will be an offence to issue butter of this kind without a proper description, and especially requiring that there shall be a distinct and sufficient indication that such butter is not Trish creamery butter.

There is another provision with regard to unclean milk. Complaint is very generally made that impure milk is supplied to these creameries. Of course, the introduction of any impure milk into a creamery can ruin the entire output of the creamery for that day. I may say the difficulty is that if one creamery manager refuses to take such 542 milk, competition is so keen that the milk can be easily disposed of to another creamery. The managers of the creameries are themselves the servants of the suppliers, and therefore it is extremely difficult for them to know what means they can adopt to deal with this evil. The Bill proposes to make the supplying of unclean milk and butter an offence. Those are the main provisions. The rest of the Bill deals with penalties and interpretations and general machinery. The Bill has been submitted to all the associations connected with the butter industry in Ireland and its principles have been approved. The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, the Irish Butter Trade Association, and the Irish Creamery Managers' Association have all signified their approval of tie principles of the Bill, reserving to themselves, however, the right to get Amendments moved by those who represent them, if they see tit, on the Committee stage. I think this will be generally admitted to be a useful measure, and I hope your Lordships will give it a First Reading to-night and allow me to put it down for Second Reading on a day soon after Easter.