WELLINGTON CITY MILK BILL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 62, 7 December 1918, Page 8

WELLINGTON CITY MILK BILL

. o Tho Wellington City Milk Bill has been quashed by Parliament. By the Bill tlio ■ AVellington City Council sought author- ' ity to create a monopoly of the milk '■ business in Iho city ot AVellinglon, ami also power to commandeer all milk >pro- ' diicfd by farmers within a radius of thirty miles of the city. Tho quashing of tlic Hill in Committee' leaves Iho Wellington C'il.y Corporation in u vary ■ peculiar- position, as those responsible for • tlio proposed reform of tho milk trade— ■ a reform which everyone concedes is de- , sirable—depended in a very largo measure • on tlio passing of tho Bill giving tho de- ! fiircd, monopoly. In anticipation of that i measure being passed the City Council ' purchased tlio larjje and commodious preI mist's in Dixon Street of tho City Milk Supply (originally erected by the Fresh : Wood and Ico Company), havo negotiated . with Messrs. T. Ballinger and Co. for a I strip of land 1 in.- tho same connection, havo secured a iivo .years' lease of a big dairy factory at Otaki, and made sovoral appointments carrying substantial salar- ! ies. . What will bo (lono undor tho circumstances cannot yet bo dofined. Tlio '. City Council may elect still to go for- ' ward with Iho liiiik business, in which caso it will probably find itself in com- ' petition with vendors with _or- ' ganised businesses in tlio city; it may compromise with tho vendors in some, way (o carry on tho dis- ' trilmting side of tho business whilst • tho council act as suppliers; or it may • drop the whole, proposal, in which caso ! tho ratepayers would be very substantial losers. It; is not generally known (lint tho j-chiMiii. , was m> far forward I hat the city i would havo been in a position to coiu- . iiiencu business as suppliers a week L henco (and may still elect to do so), but . tlio quashing of tho Bill brings tho counj nil faco to fate with a yery difficult :■ problem.