WELLINGTON'S MILK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3090, 22 May 1917, Page 6

WELLINGTON'S MILK

THE DEMAND FOR IMPROVEMENT. The city's milk supply was. discussed. at last night's meeting of the Greater; Wellington Town Planning and Hum- 1 cipal lileotora , - Association, when Mr. C« E.'"Wheeler moved: "That this association. urges the " ' City Council to etrongly represent to tho Government the necessity" for carrying out its statutory duties-in-'re-gard to controlling the purity of niilk from tho herd to tho city, and that, the distribution be then, undertaken by the municipality." -

Ho said that the subject had beetf discussed till it was threadbare, and the present need seemed to be tho concentration of effort on a definite scheme of reform. A clearing-house might guar-i anteo the purity of tho milk when itl, reached the hands of tho vendors, but. the faults of the present waeteful methods of distribution would remain, and there could bo no certainty of clean, purer milk reaching the actual consumer. nni long as it had to pass through the hands of a large number of competing and poorly-organised vendors. :

The motion was seconded by Mr. E. J, Alderson, who refered to the division ofj responsibility between several Government Departments and the City Council. The milk question had been before, the Wellington public for nine or ten years, and it bad constantly been shelved. The expenditure of w£S6,OOO on a clearinghouse would add to the retail cost without providing any real remedy. In fact, that sum of money would buy out all the retail vendors. American cities had solved the milk problem by arranging for distribution in sealed bottles of glass or" paper.

Councillor Shorland.supported the tion. He said that the City Council should have control of the milk from the cobrail to the backdoor. Apparently the City Council had dropped the clearing, house scheme. At least, he had hearoj nothing of it since he became a member. Mr. Dowlirig said that he had lad personal experience •of the New York milk: system. The milk there was brought into the city in bnlk, received at depotss whore it was pasteurised, and then tributed in sealed bottles. The retail' cost of this pure and safe milk hadj been sd. per quart. • ..

Mr. Carvell Cooke 6aid that he believ-j ed tho council had always had plenty of power to deal with the milk question.! The trouble was that the problem had not been faced seriously. The council' had talked of'the cost of a proper milkj supply, but it did not seem to consider; cost in other matters. There was no; reason why the milk supplied to thej city should not be graded and tested as carefully as the milk eupplied to the| cheese factories, where the exact quality: of every supplier's milk was known. Ha agreed with the scheme sketched in thej motion, but he was lot anxious to put additional trading concerns in the hands, of the City Council until tho enterprises already in its hands were better man-; aged. Mr. Ballinger said that he was oppose ed to the second portion of the motion. Mr. T. W. Ward said that some of thei milking sheds from which the city drew its eupplies were in a disgraceful condition. The way the milk was handled on 6ome of the farms and on its way to the city accounted for a great deal of; the trouble that arose later} The matter] ought to be taken in hand, by the Gov-> eminent, which had a duty to the public. It should not be difficult h> evolve a system of inspection and distribution that would put pure mjlk into every;' home throughout the country. . In the course of his reply, Mr. Wheeler 1 , mentioned that tho price of milk was practically doubled between the hour when it reached the city and the timej of its delivery to the home. In other words, half the money paid by the consumers went to support a. wasteful and. Inefficient system of distribution. The motion was carried.