THE CITY MILK SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 76, 24 December 1918, Page 6

THE CITY MILK SUPPLY

CLEARING STATION NEARLY READY

SHOPS TO BE OPENED BY COUNCIL

•" The position in connection with the proposed control by.-the City Council'of ihe milk supply of Wellington was renewed by the chairman of the Milk Jomniittee, Councillor G. B. Norwood, [n .the course of nn interview wit!i a Dominion reporter Inst night. [ "The City Council's new milk staiionjs nearing completion, and will be ready to take care of the milk supply of Wellington on January 15," said Councillor Norwood. "Unfortunately, the work hiis been very much' delayed" as the reslilt "of the epidemic. Considerable care has'.been taken:in' the selection of tho managerial staff, and there is every reason to believe that Hie needs of the public so./ar as the milk received and passed for human consumption is concerned will be all that is desired. T, jvould like to say here that the correspondence appearing in the local. Press [hiring the last week or-two, written, it is evident in most cases, by interested people, may, if not corrected, leave an impression in the public mind that the expenditure to dale has been rendered useless by the loss of the Milk Bill. I wish"to give the ratepayers the absolute assurance of my committee that there has not been :.a penny spent, or an agreement made that is not absolutely necessary, even if the council is forced for want of power to carry out its whole scheme, to work under the legislation that is at present on the Statute Book. My committee was naturally disappointed at the loss of tho Bill, inasmuch as the 1910 Act is cumbersome, and is not economical in many respects.

Council Did Not Seek a Monopoly. •'. "A wrongi impression seem? to hare got jbroad that the council sought by the promotion of the Bill to'gain a monopoly, ■. and put the milk' vendors out of business. Such was never the intention pf. the council. On the contrary, the objects of the Bill were to secure to the present vendors a monopoly under the direction of the council, and as my committee's 6cheme provided a saving in dis- ■ tribution alone of .£15,000 per annum, it is regrettable that the loss of the Bill will make it possible for this waste to continue indefinitely. If: was proposed to ?ive. the whole of the savings that would accrue from the more economic system' of delivery to the present vendors for two years, and to ask the public in N the meantime to ho satisfied with an assured pure milk supply. At the end of that time, it was 'intended that the council should liavo full power to insist upon these economies being passed on to the public. In the absence pf legislative power to regulate the milk supply, as stated above, we are only able to have pur station declared a clearinghouse under the Act, and all the milk for delivery to* the public must be first jpassed through the clearing-i e. We .have power to turn back any njlk which pur, experts regard as unfit for human consumption, but, unfortnately, we have inp power that will assure the" public that it. will-be delivered to them in the same state as it leaves our clearing-house. As a set-off against these obvious disadvantages, it is proposed to open shops ill all the thickly-populated parts of the city, and from .these shops -it will bo possible for residents to get their milk in ajpure, fresh condition at a much lower cost per gallon than it is possible for the milk vendor to deliver it to the house. It is no part of my committee's present scheme to deliver milk from house to 'house. The milk vendors regard the council's shops as a very serious matter for them, and my-committee regrets very much the serious position they will find themselves in as a result of the loss of the Bill, which was due largely to the advocacy of ,the vendors. We have no power to compensate vendors for % their business, and, if we had, it is just a 'question as Jo whether .we would lie justified in buying a lot of plant, the greater part of which is entirely out of date. In fact, the whole «system of the distribution of ;tmlk, we have ample evidence to show, ,would be entirely changed within the two years' period'in'which my committee sought to recoup those men who have been years in the business/for any alterationthe council might be called upon to •make at the end of that time in the injterests'of the"public. One 'has only to 'consider the importance of the milk'ques. tion. This food enters every house in .exact proportion Ho the number who reride therein, and a saving. to the eMent of about .£15,000 a year in its distribu. tion would be one of the aids in reducing the cost of living—a matter of importance in this age. My committee is still willing; to give favourable consideration to any proposal put forward by the vendors that is workable, but they are averse to creating any. form of monopoly by .agreement that they have no legislative ;p'ower to control."