BAD MILK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2859, 25 August 1916, Page 7

BAD MILK

STRINGENT STEPS IN' THIS CITY.

The Minister of Public Health (the Hon. G; W. Russell) has received a re-, port from the : ' District Health Office that from July 18 to August 17 131 samples of milk have been taken by the City Council inspectors "in Welington City. In 118 cases the milk complied with the .regulations. Eight prosecutions were launched or ■ ordered against vendors, and in tive.cases in which the milk contained a small amount of water, or ian appreciable amount of dirt, warnings were issued. -The report _ states also that where samples of milk are found to be below standard tho suppliers are visited by the Departmental inspector, and that this following up of tho matter to its source is haying a good effect on the supply of.milk to retailero.

;"As an indication of what is being Bone," said the Minister yesterday, "I may mention that I .have to-day approved of two prosecutions in the Wellington district. In ono'case the-milk is described as equivalent to milk con. taining the lowest permitted .amount of butter-fat, from which 13.8 per cent, of this fat has been removed by skimming. In tho other case tho sample was not clean. It contained approxi; mately 30 times the amount of extraneous solid matter usually found in clean milk offered for sale. I hope that the stringent steps being taken at the present time to bring the Wellington milk supply into conformity with the law will "have the'effect in a very short period of removing what has been an undoubted menace to the health of the people of this district." The Min istor added that he had. noted with satisfaction the fact that Magistrates in various parts of tho Dominion were inflicting heavy fines for selling adulterated or unclean milk. . - •„