THE CITY MILK SUPPLY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19179, 9 December 1927, Page 8

THE CITY MILK SUPPLY.

IS MUNICIPALISE WARRANTED?

(Contributed by the Citi zena » Business lies to the hand 0 f thOC ., Council-roads, abattoirs, ma J whatnot-Important bu sincßß *'«*> many thousands of p ouudg - T^t that this business has beon'held!?* weeks and weeks because Ci v I ' «H M.P'. could not b.bti'2s at once? Admittedly, they „/ .J* head and shoulders 0 f th e li, Council, but surely the City i, JJ? 6r going to pay, something f O V\? Council's delays. PrivateV* 1 nesses could not survive twelve m OI S if earned on on the sam o M S*■■ The question of the CUy nuftfr has been made one of very mJPp portanco by the Council becai u now threatens to shut its eye s J stop its ears to facts and irnfowfi argument governing this matter To turn the City milk supply fa*. : municipal concern would moana W expense and the creation of body of semi-public servants in a Z? try already overruu with them. DiftT ent situations demand different >«I sures. Wellington has a municipal nnsupply, yet 30 per cent, of WelhW ton's milk is obtained still from «£ ' vato sources. And yet Mr Herroa T his report, says: "Except in the mi. of those having a vested interest in rtT milk business, and therefore natnrX biased, I have never yet come aerS anybody who has been unable to nS. ciate the many advantages whichi u*' likely to accrue both to the prodttem and the consumers in the publio 2, trol of the milk supply of the Oity » Surely Mr Horron, as Wellington'! arch-apostle of milk, should be abU to persuade the Wellington citueni Z do better than that with tho busJtM of which ho is manager, or doos he not know that 30 per cent, of Wellington's milk is not of tho municipal bttiiftl If any city wero suited more than u> other to municipal control of milk It tt perhaps Wellington, hemmed in %Hi hills, and far from its dairy farm, Housewives will change their milKmJ, without the flickor of an eyelid If tai' milk he supplies is not satisfactory, ail yet there are still those in WollkgS who scorn the municipal milk. t\u\m more, are the conditions in each dS" or town so absolutely identical that W> Herron should make practically Ideal?' cal reports except as to tho nantt tf * the city or town dealt with! Mumy palisation is not a fetish blindly tof followed: it must submit to the testix i factß. > J? * One hundred and ten thouitlf pounds is a pretty price to pay form ! privilege of changing your milklttw'. ' and for the permanent engngemetjtSl, < a municipal milkman. If the pretaf system in Christchurch produces Bra* results, and better than the munlntM system in Wellington, then Gluto* church citizens will be well advised jP forbid their Labour Council from gtur" indulging in the expensive satwraojiol' of a political whim. !i f What does an examination of ti&j situation in Christchurch ftflfP It"shows this most important/fact tßii*" the milkmen as a body have beta ', taking steps to guard o*n *"' calling and the public. 311? Bliss, of \ the Sealed Bottle Milkl#MdW Auo> ciation, approached Dr, R*akej, th» Direotor of Agriculture -and a tntom of inspection was initiate. In toW years £12,000 has been iMKlnito' proving sheds and thato < , ands of cows hare been snfctoifyiA W the tuberculin test. Lately Mr Bitot „ with Mr Parlane, of the C3tt«Wttrobt f ' Dairymen's Association, brought' matter of milk under the the City Council. And the lastiOollifit* cil, composed chieflv of men)Mri'«' the Mayor's "contemptible" Cituw \* Association, appointed a contmittyt t6s report on the question. For.tw months a chemical and bacteriolrf jw report was made, and a laboratory «* tablished. The test in March latt I* vealed a state of affairs not such 01, u the words of the Mayor, "to ahock-W" public," but rather to reassure wa* viz: 80 per cent, very good, lip* Cent, fair, and 8 per cent. PORTS' tho present time the report of jh» J »f boratory tests is. 80 per cent. W* good. 11 per cent, good, and wfiw£ ance indifferent-ra steady 'jWrK' ment. There is no evidence or |w culosis. This is .the' finding wWj Pearson, the very able bwrfwiologWi» the Christchurch Hospital, In.» face of such facte as these, thew ment of the Mayor is an unillrtiatw, slnr upon a hard-forWnirßeowonoiW public—the dairvmen. Add to th« WJ fact that Dr. Beakes says *»'MJ the best dairv conditions of ■JJEfIM, ■ in the Dominion, and our Officer of Health, Dr. TelftW. m careful examination, states that»*, more than favourably impressed wj»» .j the Christchurch milk s«PpK (WW, with this the fact that Dr. £«« *< W*»nin<rton. says that the JWjfHftj({ Milk Donot is working under «'Ps?s ties. Christchurch milk, onJJwfflp loses nothing in comparison .TOjlSfl* lineton milk, and the former would involve ow Wtom; in an utterlv cniustifinMe «tpa»*>,^g