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To determine which factors account for customer satisfaction with a service and their loyalty to a given service provider, in the particular, context of “backpacking” in Australia, a significant element of the country's hospitality and tourism economy.

A series of hypotheses was developed from the services marketing literature and built into a 52 item questionnaire administered to 281 backpackers staying at the three youth hostels in Australia, who thus responded whilst actually experiencing the service encounter rather than in recalling it later. The European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) was used to measure the strength and direction of the determinants of customer satisfaction, and the impact that the antecedents of satisfaction had on loyalty to the generic provider.

The results of confirmatory factor analysis of the questionnaire responses suggest that brand image is a predictor of satisfaction with a hostel, while perceived value indicates a degree of loyalty towards the “brand”.

The ECSI model's generic measuring criteria limit its generalisability. Further, research could usefully investigate other variables applicable to both hostels and conventional hotels to be included in a measurement model of satisfaction and loyalty for the whole hospitality industry.

Backpacker hostels are an example of experienced‐based service encounters with few clear comparative advantages. The marketing of the generic brand must therefore foster a brand image congruent with the experience actually delivered and the potential customers' expectations of it, thereby reducing decision risk.

The unusual context and particular methodology cast fresh light on an important challenge for marketing planners in the service industries.

Britain's merchant navy dominated the international maritime trade in the 19th century. The strong ship owners' lobby imposed on the shippers the only choice to contract either under bills of lading drafted almost totally on the ship owners' terms or not to contract. The conflict between Britain and its rival the American merchant navy precipitated a movement for the use of model contracts of shipment (carriage) and towards standardisation of the liability of International liner carriers by legislative intervention. The bill of lading through its use in international trade gained the characteristic of being the document which incorporates the contractual terms. So, the orally agreed contract of carriage gave way to the contract of carriage in the form of a bill of lading.

Compares and contrasts the contractual role of bills of lading in the context of Greek, US and English law. Discusses the legal status and contractual roles of these lading bills in the context of the legislative provisions and associated case law in each of the three countries. Concludes that the role of these bills is unsettled and there is no uniform perception. Recommends measures involving amendments to English legislation, to consolidate the regulation of international trade.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

There are various measures which can be taken to improve hygienic conditions in the food trades, but basically they reduce to two: namely, legislation and exhortation. I am speaking here of actual positive steps that can be taken by an outside authority such as the central or local government. Within the industry, forces having an influence on hygiene are, of course, continuously at work, and they may make for the improvement or the deterioration of hygienic conditions. These forces may be of a commercial character or they may derive from a desire of those who are engaged in the industry to make their work as attractive as possible by the creation of clean surroundings. The strength of the latter varies with the individual—there are a few who are blind to dirt around them, and there are, of course, also those, I believe a small minority, who, although they are—to use a modern jargon—allergic to dirt, are even more allergic to the work of preventing its accumulation and of cleaning away what is unavoidable. Most of us, however, are neither blind to the existence of dirt around us nor too lazy to make the effort to remove it if it is there. But by far the most important factor of this kind is competition. Generally speaking, the housewife is becoming more fastidious and will go to a shop where the conditions are clean, where food is attractively displayed and the staff are themselves clean and refrain from unhygienic practices such as licking the fingers to detach a piece of wrapping paper. At the same time, she likes to see plenty of fish from which to make her selection, and the successful fishmonger must accordingly have a generous display. The housewife does not then feel that her choice is limited to what has been rejected by others. Moreover, when the demand for fish is high, possibly owing to the scarcity of other types of protein food, she will tend to go to the shop which has the best supply and the greatest variety of fish even though its hygienic conditions may fall short of the ideal. A crowded shop will make it more difficult for the retailer to find the time and space to protect his fish from contamination and to keep it in prime condition. Thus you will sometimes find a rapid turnover combined with a lack of attention to some of the niceties of hygiene, but it should not be supposed that the first follows from the second. Brisk business may tend to militate against hygiene but lack of attention to hygiene will not encourage good business. Other things being equal, the housewife will choose the cleanest shop. I do not need to tell you that fish is a highly perishable food and that the rate of decay depends very largely on the proper treatment of the fish and of the observance of sanitary and cleanly conditions. Decay is largely due to bacterial action, and any steps which will tend to reduce the activity of bacteria, such as proper icing, protection from bruising, and so on, must be beneficial both to the fish trader and his customers. Before I come to express a view on the principles which ought to guide us in the effort to spread the gospel of hygiene and to ensure that it is put into practice, I want to congratulate the National Federation of Fishmongers on the interest it takes, and I believe has always taken, in this subject. I remember how, during the war years, before there was a Food Hygiene Division in the Ministry, I was in charge of another Division and had some dealings with your federation. I remember that the secretary of your federation approached me many times in the hope of inducing the Ministry to take steps to secure cleaner conditions. I was compelled to answer that we were baulked by questions of vires and that though the spirit was willing, powers were non‐existent. The interest of your federation is also shown by the useful leaflet entitled “ Fish Trade Hygiene ”. The recommendations in this leaflet are valuable, and if they were universally observed would leave little room for complaint. It is an open secret that the Minister has in mind some modifications and extensions of the existing law. First, many of you will be aware from statements made in the House of Commons that he hopes at some appropriate time to introduce a Bill to amend the Food and Drugs Act. This Bill, if it is enacted, will probably make some slight changes in Section 13, but I clearly cannot enter into details at this meeting. Your federation has already had an opportunity to comment on the proposals. It is also known to you that the Minister has in mind some regulations for the fish trades. Regulations are the most suitable instrument for dealing with particular conditions of individual trades; the general picture is that the Act is appropriate for the requirements applicable to all food trades and that these ought to be supplemented by regulations imposing special requirements for particular trades. It is not always possible to arrange matters in this way, but it is the pattern which underlies our ideas for hygiene legislation, and our draft regulations do in fact contain for the most part provisions which seem to us to be necessary to meet the particular conditions of the fish trades but have not a general application to other trades. Your officers have already had an opportunity of commenting on our proposals which cover all stages in the movement of fish from the time when it is landed on the quay until the time when it is delivered to the consumer. You will be particularly concerned with those parts of the regulations which touch on the sale of fish by retail. They deal with personal cleanliness, the cleanliness of premises, equipment and utensils, the structure of the ceiling, walls and floors of rooms in which fish is sold or prepared for sale, the provision of water, the wearing of protective clothing, the disposal of refuse, the provision and use of refrigerated storage, the icing of fish, and the protection of fish from contamination. I do not intend to go into the details of these draft regulations; I doubt if any of them does more than to set out in black and white what every good fishmonger already does or refrains from doing.

That the introduction of the Control system should have given rise to a considerable amount of criticism, both appreciative and adverse, was naturally to be expected. The appreciative remarks which have appeared in the press, and those also which have been privately communicated to the directors, indicate that the subject has been intelligently considered, and in some cases carefully investigated and studied. The opinions given are worth having on account of the position and influence of hose who have given them, and on account of the obvious freedom from bias which has characterised them. This is so far satisfactory, and goes to show that the success which has attended the working of the Control system abroad may well be expected to attend it in this country as soon as it is sufficiently well known to be appreciated by the manufacturers and vendors of good and genuine products, and by the general public, whose best interests it cannot but serve.

We observe with pleasure that the French Analytical Control, which is known as the Controle Chimique Permanent Français, continues to make satisfactory progress. The value and importance of the system of Control cannot fail to meet with appreciation in France—as it cannot fail to meet with appreciation elsewhere—so soon as its objects and method of working have been understood and have become sufficiently well known. From the reports which appear from time to time in l'Hygiène Moderne, the organ of the French Control, it is obvious that a number of French firms of the highest standing have grasped the fact that to place their products on the market with a permanent and authoritative scientific guarantee as to their nature and quality, is to meet a growing public demand, and must therefore become a commercial necessity. An ample assurance that the Controle Chimique Permanent Français is a solid and stable undertaking is afforded by the facts that it is under the general direction of so distinguished an expert as M. Ferdinand Jean and that he is assisted by several well‐known French scientists in carrying out the very varied technical work required.

This Bill was read a second time without a division in the House of Commons on July 23rd after a debate lasting nearly five hours. Opposition speakers, including particularly Dr. Edith Summerskill and Mr. Willey (former Parliamentary Secretaries to the Ministry of Food between 1945 and 1951), attacked the Government for having whittled down, very extensively, the contemplated Regulations (to be made when the Bill is on the statute book) dealing with cleanliness in the handling of food. As is generally known, the draft regulations have for several months been the subject of many discussions between trade organisations and the Ministry of Food. As a result, the Minister has decided to modify or drop several of the proposals which he had at first intended to carry into effect by regulations, and to substitute for some of them “codes of practice.”

In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged upon the public that no such preparations should be purchased without an adequate guarantee that they are free from copper compounds. Copper poisoning, however, is not the only danger to which consumers of preserved foods are liable. Judging from the reports of cases of irritant poisoning which appear with somewhat alarming frequency in the daily press, and from the information which we have been at pains to obtain, there can be no question that the occurrence of a large number of these cases is to be attributed to the ingestion of tinned foods which has been improperly prepared or kept. It is not to be supposed that the numerous cases of illness which have been ascribed to the use of tinned foods were all cases of metallic poisoning brought about by the action of the contents of the tins upon the metal and solder of the latter. The evidence available does not show that a majority of the cases could be put down to this cause alone; but it must be admitted that the evidence is in most instances of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character. It has become a somewhat too common custom to put forward the view that so‐called “ptomaine” poisoning is the cause of the mischief; and this upon very insufficient evidence. While there is no doubt that the presence in tinned goods of some poisonous products of decomposition or organic change very frequently gives rise to dangerous illness, so little is known of the chemical nature and of the physiological effects of “ptomaines” that to obtain conclusive evidence is in all cases most difficult, and in many, if not in most, quite impossible. A study of the subject leads to the conclusion that both ptomaine poisoning and metallic poisoning—also of an obscure kind—have, either separately or in conjunction, produced the effects from time to time reported. In view of the many outbreaks of illness, and especially, of course, of the deaths which have been attributed to the eating of bad tinned foods it is of the utmost importance that some more stringent control than that which can be said to exist at present should be exercised over the preparation and sale of tinned goods. In Holland some two or three years ago, in consequence partly of the fact that, after eating tinned food, about seventy soldiers were attacked by severe illness at the Dutch manœuvres, the attention of the Government was drawn to the matter by Drs. VAN HAMEL ROOS and HARMENS, who advocated the use of enamel for coating tins. It appears that an enamel of special manufacture is now extensively used in Holland by the manfacturers of the better qualities of tinned food, and that the use of such enamelled tins is insisted upon for naval and military stores. This is a course which might with great advantage be followed in this country. While absolute safety may not be attainable, adequate steps should be taken to prevent the use of damaged, inferior or improper materials, to enforce cleanliness, and to ensure the adoption of some better system of canning.