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HOSPITAL MILK SUPPLY.

Sir,—'As Dr< Platts-Mills intends to deal, .with : those ■ portions, of Mr. Witton's, latter,in which ho attempts to dis-credit-her. report,; I will confine this letter-to . the facta set .forth in the various reports received from the Public Hoalth.-.Bepartment covering a period frpm Febiuary, 1914, to Marchj 1915,. The first I shall take is* a report dated February 25,1914, upon, a sample of,.milk from the Hospital supplied to the Department by Inspector Cowdrey., .The ; analyst says: It is below the staii--4ard'''(3.2s "per 'contain fat, and in solids'liot fat, and contains 8 per cent, of water in excess of that permissible calculated by the standard. Calculated from the freezing point, it contains 14.5 per.cent..of water'.'! In connection with this report,, some arose as to whether the con-, traotor (Mr. Witton) or. his sub-contrac-tors should be prosecuted. This, howover) appears to be certain: that, al--1 though tne Department of Public Health (upon which the onus rested, aiid not on "the board) threatened to prosecute, nothing really happened. However, as the ieault of thi3 investigation, combined with the action of the board, there were no serious grounds of complaint until December 12, 1914, when a report was received from the Dominion An-, I alyst upon ten samples of Hospital milk, in which he states that two samples "are of inferior quality, an 4 are almost certainly stale milk." No action .was taken upon this report, but ten further' samples were taken and sent to the Department, with the result that three camples touched the standard (3.25 per cent." of milk-fat), three we're slightly over the standard, and four samples ranged from 87.7 per cent, of the standard to 94.9 per cent. At this time it appears that'steps .were taken to obtain samples of milk direct from the herd on the farm.

In view of Mr. Witton's statement that he was not aware of any complaint as to 'the' quality of "the' milk supplied to the Hospital, the following extract from a letter (which was sent as a result of the analysis of the various samples of milk dealt ..with), signed by the ■District' Health. Officer, and'dated February'4,'l9ls, addressed to his sub-con-tractors, -may serve to "lighten, the .darkness." Extract: "I beg to inform you'that, as a result of analysis- of samples taken direct from your herd, it appears that both in the case of the morning and evening milk, the milk supplied to the Hospital 'contains less milk-fat than is contained in tho samples taken direct from the herd; also, some of the samples taken at the Hospital do not contain the amount of milkfat prescribed by tho regulations. . Further, some of the milk supplied has not 'been fresh, milk." • •; There is also an earlier letter, dated February"l 9/ 1915,- addressed to. the board's .secretary,'in which, reporting upon l the second-batch of ten samples, he states' that:, "Tho average analysis shows that the Hospital is not only ob;taining milk the milk-fat. of which is below the standar3, but - also below the areraige milk supply delivered to the ordinary citizen of Wellington.'' Again 'in March, 1915, , wo-.find more trouble -with, /the ■ Hospital milk supply. on .four . sample b tho analyst.: of • the department . : states-that '"sample No. -226-»is-below standard in fat;?'' "Sampler22B.is also below stand-ard,-the fat:'b'eing.;only; 87.7 per cent, 'of ithie standard 3.25." "Two samples were 'stale,rand-(unsafe for the feeding of young children." On March 10 the I'District Health ..Officer, , as a consequence of these results,' wrote the seo- ; retary of/Ujie. boaijd,, follows ?—"Ejanfe •ple'fSNo: 228 will ; be.('the subject: of a prosecution. Nos. 243 anid 244 weTe almost .morning's milk deliv- ' ered.inthe evening." .. ;;On" 'March™ 15." 1915;" "four'' additional samples were submitted for analysis with, -.the results:—Sample 294, pe&eent. milk-fdt.j sample. 295 sJper^cenit v inilkrfat.i .Compare ..these results with Nos. 226 and 228 above mentioned, and _ you will find betterment of approximately 50 per cent, in fiit. Is.this due to-the.action of the •Department, ??S3 per; itsy letf;er;of, .MaToh, 10, or shall I. allow Mr.'Wittott to'explain?

far view of the experience tere detailed, can it be wondered, at that the •••ftHoy; j jtifo advice - given some yfaTS ago, attack uponi"the; 'insanitary conditioin' jcf> Auckland ;to "get your milk;; as -direct _ fronv.aherdof healthy-' cow# as *#«-£.*;.'!• • • • ;J: 'Wv M'EWAN. Petorie,.<April.;l2. 1915. '

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19150421.2.9.1

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2441, 21 April 1915, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
703

HOSPITAL MILK SUPPLY. Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2441, 21 April 1915, Page 4

HOSPITAL MILK SUPPLY. Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2441, 21 April 1915, Page 4

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