WATER IN THE MILK PAIL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1824, 9 August 1913, Page 4

WATER IN THE MILK PAIL.

WELLINGTON CITY'S ANNUAL LOSS. It appears from tho .annual report .of Dr. Maclaurin, the Dominion Analyst, that about enough water to float tho gift at any rale, a fair-sized oraft—was sold in tho city during last year in tho guise of milk at fourponco a quart. Dr. Maclaurin states: —. "Three hundred and seventy-two samples of milk were' received from tho, Department, 203 being talfcn under tho Sale of Foods kind Drills Act. Tho number taken under the Act from'retail suppliers in Wellington cify and suburbs was 166. Of the.?e, ono was deficient in_ fat; threo contained boric acid; and 27 contained from. 2.3' to 20.!) per cent, of added water, the average being 9.6. "Taking tho annual consumption of milk® in Wellington and suburbs as approximately. 2,000.000 gallons (MOO gallons per day), and tho proportion of adulterated samples'found as fairly representative, til en 31,230 gallons of water were sold as milk during the year. This, at Jd: per quart, represents ovot 422(100 paid by the public for water. As only a small fraction of this sum was recovered in fines and costs, there is still a wide margin of profit for tho vendors cf adulterated milk. "Although nearly three times as many milk samples wcro taken under tho Palo of Foods and Drugs Act this year as in 1911, still more could bo taken with advantage to the oommunity, especially during the winter months. Systematic and regular inspection is a powerful deterrent of fraud, and any cessation, even though temporary, opens tho door for coiwider•ablonbuso. This was well iintanccd during tho year. For various reasons, no milk samples,were obtained from retailors in the city from Juno 24 to August 8, a period of over six weeks. Iji the week following this period ten samples wc.ro obtained, and, of these, six had been adulterated with from 8 to 15 per ccnt. of water, tho average being 10 per oont. The inspection was continued regularly, and in the next four weeks, out oi 24 simples received only four .vcro adulterated, and tho average percentage of added water had fallen to fi."