THE MILK PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 11, 28 January 1918, Page 6

THE MILK PROBLEM

A COUNCIL REPORT CHALLENGED MISLEADING STATEMENTS ALLEGED The following is a. copy of a letter which has been addressed to the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) by Mr. E. H. Williams :— His Worship the Mayor, Wellington. Dear Sir, — Report 011 Council's Milk Clearing Station. I desire to place on record that although appointed in conjunction with Messrs. Oliver and Ward to report as to the best means of overcoming the present difficulty in connection with the council's milk clearing station, the report presented by you to the council on Thursday evening was not in accordance with the recommendation made by me. A report was made by Messrs. Oilver, Ward, and myself which does not appear to have been placed before the council, and 1 fully anticipated that in the event of further information being required 1 would litve been consulted. The statement of your experts, Messrs. Oliver and Ward, that a certain section of the mihe vendors are antagonistic to the clearing house is very misleading. It is certainly true that some, and I think I am safo in saying the whole, of tho milk vendors, are opposed to the present clearing station and method of handling the milk as recommended by experts Ward and Oliver, and demonstrated by the exhibition of "Black Wednesday." I am in closo touch with tho milk vendors, and have no hesitation in stating that they as a body will loyally support the council when the clearing station is run on practical lines, and carries out what the public and milk vendors were led to believo b.v you, and have every right to demand, would be carried out. (Sd.) 11. H. WILLIAMS. THAT~THREAT (To the Editor.) Sir,— According to tho Press report Mr. Wright, chairman of tho Milk Committee of the City Council, stated that before- the milk station was erected the farmers ulaced a pistol at the head of the council and said "If_ you don r t do ■what we ask we will not send our milk." The statement is very unfair to a very large number of farmers who are supplying milk to "Wellington and who were in no .way concerned with the threat made. I would ask Mr. Wright to state publicly whether it is not a fact that the threat mentioned by him was made by certain directors of the Dairy Farmers' Association, of ; . which organisation Mr. H. A. Ward, the council's consulting milk expert, is secretary and manager. I am a shareholder of the Wellington Dairy Farmers' Association and large supplier to tho citv. —I am, etc., JAMES MAHEE. Mangaroa, January 26, 1918.