THE MILK SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 151, 21 March 1919, Page 7

THE MILK SUPPLY

MR. BODLEY MAKES CHARGES

SHORTAGES OF MILK

A statement was.made to a reporter of (Tim Dominion; yesterday by Mr. Henrv Hodley regarding-some/of tho difficulties which the distributors, of milk to tho people of tho city arc experiencing in relations .with tho city- milk supply department. - ' i; Mr. .Bodley. produced a draft of a deed for the formation of.-a company, to bo st-vled the, No., 1 Milk; Distributing Company, and the covering letter from the City Solicitor, dated March 20. Mr. Bodley said' that this deed was in course of preparation, and that when it was in order for signature he would obtain tho necessary signatures,

"Mr. Norwood 'has told the people of Wellington that it/is' impossible to form a' company, and tliftt this is tho cause' of nil tho trouble,"- said Mr. Bodley. "This is really tho third/chance that tho depart-, ment has had of forming, a company, but on the. two former occasions they liavo turned it down. Wo are not at all afraid of making an open, agreoment. with tho council, :which- will allow:the to know as well ;as ourselves the conditions .uiider which we are: working; ' : "Our groat difference with the. milk department is because thoy arc foisting on to us all the blame for the delay in getting things in working ?order, while the delay is in fact tho result of. their own'mismanagement. Their effort is tomato'out that wo do everything wrong and tlia.t they do everything right. Olio .example of the mismanagement -occurred to-day. ■ Wo lmd' given our orders yesterday in,tho usual way for supplies for:to-, day. but this morning at-eight o'clock supplies stopped without any-notice at nil to ns. Tho result of this was that Eomo of us had no milk for sQme of om customers, and important tea-rooms and marble bars in tho city had to use condensed milk as a consequence-i The department had not sufficient milk to ..supply tho city, .fiiul they did not know of this in time to give us notice. ,Carts were, waiting all day, and the management could not say whether milk was coining in or not. A-motor was supposed to have .been sent out in tho. morning-for milk to inako.up" the deficiency, and it was not known to tlio station people that no motor had gone at. all until tho driver of it was found at lunch-time having food in an eating-house in tlio city. By that tinis ho should have been returning with his load of milk. This is not the only time that there has been n shortage, and this, is not the only evidenco 'of mismanagement. \ - ; ■ "They risked the quality of tho,.supply for tho whole city on tho one. machine doing all the work of. treating the milk. On more than one-occasion, because tho man using it did not; know all about it, this machine failed. 'When this happened wo were not warned that the milk coming from the station bad not been treated on! that day in any; way, and the result was that wo could not warn our customers. That milk .went wrong when it was received by.thoiconsumers. And yet the milk department say the milk is always rig-lit wliqii * it leaves tho station. A breakdowny jliko this has already happened twice. ' , "And shortages of this kind are lijcely to 1)0 repeated. Tho -Mangaroa farmers wero'to liavo held a meeting to-day to considor whether, they would withdraw their milk! froin the Wellington market because they are not satisfied with tho arrangements, and because they liavo heard that tho,assistant manager' of the station hits been away two or three days in Taranaki trying to get supplies.jto supersede the local supplies to Wellington. The cost of working the supply by tlic city is enormously heavy, and'it is not efficient. This system o£ bringing'milk in by motor is the great'item in the .expense. I fay now that this system will have to be dropped. Ths defect in the system is that (he milk. to be picked up by the motors at all hours of the night has to be left mil protected on the roadside for hours; where-all the timo it is linblo to ba interfered with. Tho farmer cannot! stand by his cans all night to watch oveij them until the motor conies. When tliri milk came in by. train the milk was left!, at the railway station, where there was some supervision over it.

"Another extravagance was tlie purchase of cans bv the department. They bought about 803 cans at a cost 01" ,£3OOO or.-JMOO9, and . without keeping proper track of them sent them to fanners all over the country, "Now they don't know where to find them, and the search for iliom •will be like looking for needles in a haystack. In spite of this lavish eslienilit'.u'c. on cans the council cannot always get enough cans for milk to come in, and fanners have been stuck up in consequence. Cans are not available when' they are wanted. I say that the council never should have relieved the ■farmer of responsibility for providing cans for the carriage of his own milk. The effect of this extravagance is shown in the high cost of treating the milk at the station. It is costing the council threepence a gallon to do work that we used <lo for oursolves for one penny a gallon. High costs under this head must mean dear milk to consumers."

WORK OF THE DEPOT CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES-POSI-TION. At last night's meeting- of the City Council, Councillor Norwood presented a statement of revenue'and expenditure

of the milk department for tho period September IG, 1018,' to February 28, 19111. lie said that the department lmd been handling tho city's milk from January 11 to 'March 28, and during that timo tho average cost of each gallon of milk had been l;!il., while the amount received from sales had been 13.73 d, Tho chief difficulty that confronted the Milk Department was tho high prico of milk fixed by- the Imperial Supplies Department's contract!-;. Tho cost of milk had been sent up 2d. per gallon by tho new contracts. The city would 1 , not buy milk at less than tho price so fixed, and it would ho for tlio council to'consider -later how tho. interests of the city consumers could best bo protected. It was open (o the council to reduce the cost of distribution, 'l'lio balance-sheet of the, department as at I'ebruary 20 last fihqwed a. loss of .61628 Ids. llii. Councillor Norwood pointed out that preliminary : e.\i)oiises in connection' with tho ■ scheme, including the issue of cards, tho blocking of the city and ■'the alteration of buililings, had amounted lo ,£2157 Gs. 5(1. Tho department had made an actual profit on iU operations, and could have shown, a -net profit of-<£soo odd -in its balance-shcot if it had kept tho preliminary expenses in a separate account. The members of the committeo had charged nothing for their own expenses in travelling and otherwise carrying cut tho' council's work.

■Councillor Luckie said that tho milk' department was not responsible for tho rise ill the prico of milk. Tlio Imperial Supplies Department had lioujjlit tlio Dominion's butter for two years to come at 181s per cwt., as against 1575. per'cwt-. paid last year. Tin's increase m price naturally had forced the council to pay more for inillc, since the producers could choose between selling to the council or fo tho butter factories. If the council had not taken over tlio supply Wellington city would have been without milk dur,'iiij; the present wintor. The individual vomlors could not have made arrangements to set tho necessary milk' under tlio conditions created by the 'Imperial purchase: The Mayor expressed liis approval of the zealous work done by the chairman and members of U\e Milk Committee. They had saved, money for the city al-' ready. They had faced tremendous 'difficulties and had achieved very favourable results. Tho committee could not he blamed fairly for the increase in price. Thai: increase was due directly to the price paid by tho dairy factories. . The difficulties had not yet been fully overcome, rind ho emphasised tho importance of securing improved means of getting tlio .milk into the city.

Councillor Ililureth also complimented the Milk Committee. He suggested'that milk depots should be opened so that milk might be sold to the people at less than Gd. per quart. The vendors wore not behaving fairly in stating that the council was responsible for Ihe increases ill the retnil price. The council had been forced by tlio competition of the dairy factories to put up the price Id. a gallon. But that was no reason why the vendors should increase the price id. a quart or 2d. a gallon.

Councillor Jl'Knnzio said that somo vendors were etill neglecting to return stale milk to the denot. They preferred to mix it with fresh milk and\ so-con-taminate the whole supply. • He did not think the people of Wellington realised fully that tho council bad saved, them froni a- milk famine.

Councillor Frost, mentioned the easo of a vendor who had'lost customers because so much of the milk, went sour after lie got it from tho depot. The report was received.