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WHEREAS the parties to the agreement dated 22nd November 1968 set out in the Schedule to this Order made application to the Secretary of State pursuant to section 11 of the Redundancy Payments Act 1965 (hereafter referred to as “the Act”) on the 4th December 1968:

The question has been recently raised as to how far the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts of 1875, 1879, and 1899, and the Margarine Act, 1887, is affected by the Act 29 Charles II., cap. 7, “for the better observation of the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday.” At first sight it would seem a palpable absurdity to suppose that a man could escape the penalties of one offence because he has committed another breach of the law at the same time, and in this respect law and common‐sense are, broadly speaking, in agreement; yet there are one or two cases in which at least some show of argument can be brought forward in favour of the opposite contention.

WE write on the eve of an Annual Meeting of the Library Association. We expect many interesting things from it, for although it is not the first meeting under the new constitution, it is the first in which all the sections will be actively engaged. From a membership of eight hundred in 1927 we are, in 1930, within measurable distance of a membership of three thousand; and, although we have not reached that figure by a few hundreds—and those few will be the most difficult to obtain quickly—this is a really memorable achievement. There are certain necessary results of the Association's expansion. In the former days it was possible for every member, if he desired, to attend all the meetings; today parallel meetings are necessary in order to represent all interests, and members must make a selection amongst the good things offered. Large meetings are not entirely desirable; discussion of any effective sort is impossible in them; and the speakers are usually those who always speak, and who possess more nerve than the rest of us. This does not mean that they are not worth a hearing. Nevertheless, seeing that at least 1,000 will be at Cambridge, small sectional meetings in which no one who has anything to say need be afraid of saying it, are an ideal to which we are forced by the growth of our numbers.

The third Annual Meeting of the Library Association to be held in Manchester should prove to be as profitable as the former meetings there. The manifold interests of the great cotton city, its activities, commercial and intellectual, its intense artistic life—so curiously at variance with its apparently materialistic atmosphere—its many libraries, some of them with real traditions; these things should go to make the 1921 meeting memorable.

In connection with the suggestion recently made in the BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL to the effect that a National Pure Food Association should be established it is of importance to call attention to the fact that a society describing itself as the “League for the Defence of Human Life” has been recently formed in Paris with the object of preventing the frauds practised by dishonest traders upon their customers. One of the obligations entered into by the members of the League is to discover and prosecute persons engaged in the sale of adulterated or injurious articles of food and drink. Judging from the recent reports of the proceedings of certain Parisian tradesmen it would appear that a society of this description has much scope for its operations in the French Metropolis, and, as we have suggested, a society with similar objects might with advantage be formed in this country, with branches in all the principal cities and towns. With the legal machinery placed at the disposal of local authorities, cumbrous, inadequate and weak as it is, much more might be done in the way of repression if only the responsible authorities could be brought better to appreciate their duty.

OUR custom of giving a report on the Library Association conference may be observed in a reduced manner this year, because we have already dealt, by anticipation, with many of its subjects and the actual meetings did not produce any Startling variation from the expected. So far as the general conduct of affairs was concerned, no conference has been handled better in what is now a long, successful sequence. The local secretariat functioned so efficiently that it was almost unobserved and unheard as first‐class machinery always is. The President's work, both in his address and handling of meetings, was masterly. The papers were a good average; some were too long, one occupying a whole hour; some were intended to be revolutionary and went off in verbal crackers; a few showed the curious modern faith that what a man does not do himself is “an outmoded technique”—a faith he could not hold if his experience were sufficient. But, on the whole, in all its variations, it was a worth‐while meeting and there was something good in every paper. We must insist, however, that the Council should vet the papers and the speakers' ability to read them adequately. To ask him to address a meeting of fourteen hundred people, the majority of them expert in the subject of the address, is a very high compliment for the Association to pay to a librarian, or, indeed, anyone else, and elementary text‐book material is unsuitable for so august an occasion. No doubt Scarborough provided the Council with some lessons in this direction.