THE MILK SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 100, 21 January 1918, Page 6

THE MILK SUPPLY

A CONFLICT OF VIEWS REPORT OF THE EXPERTS "The report submitted to the Health Committee by the experts and published in 'The Dominion this morning was confidential, ind should have been considered so until it reached the council accompanied by a report from' the committee," snid the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke, C.M.G.) on Saturday. "I did not communicate the report to the Press, and consequently do not feel responsible for its reaching the publio before the council could consider it. As to the remarks of the chairman of the Vendors' Association, I will nob traverse the ground that ho has coy?.r< ed. It is unnecessary; also there is a right time and a right place to deal with theso matters. I admit frankly that the council has considerable difficulties to contend with respecting tho clearing house, as the clay of the trial indicated. The report of the three experts indicates that the opening of the station with so few hands was not at all conducive to satisfactory workinc. and it justifies my action (taken with tho agreement of Councillor Wright) in not permitting the continuance of a similar arrangement. "The report, where it sets out the number of men required to carry rn tho business, is certainly_ one of f-tir-nrise to the council, and is a new liability that will have to be considered. The one thing that the public has the right to demand is the solution of the difficulties in the direction of ensuring a proper and wholesome supply r,f milk. Any means the council can take to assist in. bringing that into being is not only justifiable but imperative as a duty to the community. It is a very difficult position for the council to como in as a third party to carry out its functions, assuming it does so, and secure satisfaction to all concerned. Aiy opinion is that it will be impossible for the council to act as a medium between tho farmer and tho vendor and satisfy the , vendor and discharge its duty 'to the public. From the information we have gleaned from some or the vendors it seems impossible for the clearing station to be worked satisfactorily with the council acting as a buffer between the two other interests. "My contention is that the responsibility resting upon the council is m terms of the demand of the farmers to provide a'clearing house equipped with essential machinery for scalding the farmers' cans. The milk that comes into the two railway stations should he taken possession of by the farmers and taken to the clearing house for examination and testing. The nvlk should then be nut into the vendors' cans, the vendor distributing from the clearing station. The milk should be under the control of the farmer until it passes through the clearing house, the vendor taking possession then instead of at the railway station as at present. Clearly, if the council stepped ,in, as it did at ,the initiation of the. scheme, and handled the milk as between farmers and tho vendors, the vendors would hold it responsible for any changed condition after the milk left the clearing house. That is the intimation that we have received from the vendors' representatives. The council would, be the recipient also of all complaints from consumers who received their milk in an unwholesome condition. '" "The vendors' representatives state that the holding of the milk for a time in tho clearing House will affect it so that though it may lca,ve in a sound condition changes will take place rapidly, and they will not guarantee its reaching the consumers in a soiind condition. Further, the vendors'' representatives stated that they would not take the milk to their premises be pasteurised, as hitherto, so that the whole responsibility for any change would be thrown on tho council, lo my mind the simplest problem is that the milk is the farmer's until the vendor accepts delivery, and it is clearly the duty of the farmers to carry out, by labour in their employ, the whole of the work in the clearing, house, with the exception of the, testing, which is the of the council. "Tho conference on Friday was for the purpose of gaining further information to see if we could come to a working agreement. The council, I take it, does'nov wish to delegate any powera that it should shoulder, but under the changud conditions of not being able to carry out the complete distribution on municipal lines, the council must adopt a ssheme that is not likely to break down.

"The vendors' representative on Friday was, with thjfc other two experts (Messrs. Oliver and Ward) and Councillor Wright (chairman of tliivHealth Committee), in conference on ifie public question; and he acted as one of the experts whose report called for further information. Consequently he was acting as a representative of the council, and not in the narrow limitations of a vendor. His being asked to leave the room for a few minutes was necessary, as we were dealing with two sides of the question thai his own business waa involved in.

"The public," the Mayor concluded, "is of opinion that the milk is delivered fairly rapidly from the time the vendor receives it, but I regret to say that large quantities are held up for 24 hours Dcforo reaching the consumers. That is one of the things that the council is endeavouring to prevent."