Milk Scheme Supported By School Committees

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 9

Milk Scheme Supported By School Committees

The statement by the Minister of Education (Mr Tennent) that there is no longer any need for the milk-in-schools scheme is not supported by the Dominion Federation of School Commit•ee»’ Associations. The president <Mr E. r. Wilde, of Christchurch) said yesterday that this must be a personal opinion of the Minister, as the Government had not recently expressed its policy. Mr Wilde issued the following statement for the federation:— “From newspaper reports it is evident that a majority of parents throughout New Zealand support the continuance of the scheme, and the federation contends that this support is based on a thoughtful approach to the problerfl. not merely a ‘don't let's lose it because it's free' attitude. "At the recent conference of the federation in Wanganui. school committees throughout New Zealand showed their support for the scheme, although they asked for a survey of the administration and distribution of it, in order to answer criticism of waste.” N.Z. Survey "A survey carried out last November by the New Zealand Milk Board showed that overall wastage is not excessively high, when allowance is made for fluctuating attendances and other factors that can suddenly affect the level of consumption. "The scheme was set in operation in 1937 when the depression was over, and not. as the country is led to believe, as a means of combating malnutrition caused by the depression. "The scheme is operating in the United States today, having been instituted about the same time as that in New Zealand. "The federation feels that there is ho guarantee that the £750.000 can be transferred from the Department of Agriculture vote to the Department of Education vote. Education Vote “Even if this were done in any one year this amount would immediately be lost in the normal increase of £3.000.000 or £4.000,000 necessary to education. In any following year the amount would disappear. "The federation does not quarrel with the Minister's statement that he could use the money—the federation is agreed that the education vote is inadequate, and a large increase is necessarv, but that to abolish the milk-in-schools scheme would not achieve it.

"The federation feels that to abolish the scheme would

deprive those children most in need of it as a valuable supplement to their dietchildren' from large families or from families not so careful with a nutritious diet. “There is a reasonable supposition that the good overall nutrition found in New Zealand is largely supported by the free milk in schools.”