This is a Bill that anyone interested in the wine trade that has Portugal as its origin will be glad to see introduced. The wines of Portugal, as any connoisseur in wines knows, have a specially distinctive character of their own. Some of the faked and fraudulent wine manufacturers take advantage of this and try to pass off their products as having some connection with Portugal. The passing off of such, in many cases worthless articles as the wines of Portugal is detrimental to these wines. There are faked and medicated wines now on the market and the trade in them is growing. Those wines depend entirely for their trade on the glowing advertisements and exaggerated statements made about them. For instance, one firm makes the statement about its wines that they have been recommended by 20,000 doctors. These wine firms, for their own purpose, imitate the labels and general get-up of the port wine, and by their cheapness they induce the poorer classes to purchase them. The wines of Portugal are not cheap and they cannot be sold to leave a certain margin of profit except at high prices. These cheap wines to which I refer are manufactured practically in some back yards or places of that kind. On analysis it is proved that they have neither medicinal nor stimulating effects, though they are bought by the poorer people with the idea that they are wines of a stimulating character.
The Minister for Finance made a promise two and a half years ago, in the course of the Budget debate, that he would have this matter looked into. He also made the statement that there might be a case for prohibiting their sale on the grounds that he personally believed that they were frauds and should be prohibited in the interests of public health. Though two and a half years have since passed, nothing has been done. There was a Bill passed in 1887 dealing with the infringement of names in this matter of wine, but these sellers of cheap wine ignored that, and the law is practically a dead letter at present. I am sorry the Minister for Finance is not here, because it is he who made the promise that something would be done in the matter.