CITY MILK SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 222, 13 June 1919, Page 6

CITY MILK SUPPLY

FOUR COMPANIES FORMED . BLOCKING SYSTEM TO START . NEXT WEEK . . Although there is an unfortunate shortage in our \ milk supplies at the present juncture, the City Council's uiilk scheme is slowly but surely taking shape, ana it can be said that the culmination of the scheme can only be retarded by adverse conditions. When tho first schema was brought down by the. Milk Committee the proposal was that the City Council should receive all'the milk at the central clearing house, and there apportion it out to tho vendors, and in order to mukt> the scheme workable it was suggesteft that the vendors should form a company and take over the whole work of distribution on the block system. An attempt was made to bring this about, but it was found that there were elements \among the vendors that would not niiXi and as the result of this disinclination to come together the one company scheme had to be reluctantly. abandoned, Since then the business—and it is a big business —has, in a measure, worked out its own salvation, for to-day thero are four separate companies controlling the distribution of milk in Wellington, all obtaining their supplies from the central station. The cumpanies and the areas they sen a are as follow: . , No. 1.-The 'Municipal Milk Distributing Company, Ltd.: Thorndon, including Kelburn and Northland. ' No. 2.—City Milk Supply, Ltd.: Te, Aro flat, slopes ot' Mount Victoria, and Onentftl Bav ' .No. 3—Wellington Milk Vendors' Association, Ltd.: Newtown, Berhampore, Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Kilbirme, Hataitai, and Roseneath. ) No. 4.—Gorrie. and Maher, Ltd.: Area between Basin Reserve, Hankey Street; and Wallace Street, roughly west of the areas of Nos. 2 and 3 companies -Ynother small area taking in Brooklyn and Vogel town has been taken over by Messrs. Harrington, Elliott, and others. All the vendors conccrned in the various companies have been brought to seo that a real economy can be effected by adopting the blocking system and cutting out the overlapping which has been going on for so long to tho detriment of the pockets of the vendors as well as tbe public. The various companies have, it is understood, completed their 6treetblocking schemes, and a start, "will pr°p" ably be made to put the new idea into practice next week. At last evening's meeting of the City Council, the Milk Committee reported: "That tho milk vendors of the city ol Wellington have mutually agreed as to the blocking of the city, and the committee recommends the counci to anpro\ e of the blocks as £?t out on the plan to bo laid on the table, and that the Oitj Engineer be asked to make a survey ox the boundaries, together with a desenptiori of same, in order that the l/ity Solicitor may settle the'matter.

Milk Committee ?.t Otaki. The members of the Milk Committee visited Otaki'on Wednesday and; inspected the dairy factory through which Wellington now receives u substantial propdrtion of its -milk supplies. It was de. cided to effect certain structural alterations and to provide a railway siding, which will allow the milk trucks to he run right into the premises. . ■ The daily examination and testing ot milk received from the country at the central station lftis.ndt been without its effect. There have been cmws of waterin? discovered recently, which will prol> ably form the basis of Court actions in the near future. . One of the great causes of anxiety to tho Milk Committee is the, getting to town on Sunday of Monday s milk supply. About half of this supply, .roughly, cornea from the Lower Wairarapa and Mangaroa, arid, owing to there being no bunday trains at all from the Wairarapa,it lias to be brought to 1;own % motor lorn-. Just , why there should be anxiety is occasioned by the faot that between Wellington , and Featherjton there are no fewer tliau sixteen bridges, many ot them notoriously shaky, and in two or three cases the publ\c is warned that the bridge cannot take any vehicle weigii. ing over two tons; A 3-ton orry tafcw chances, and those weighing (with load) i tons may be said to be delibeiate y courting trouble. Fortunately some or the more frail structures are so short that the fore wheels of the lorry have reached terra firma before the back pair talco tho bridge, 'so at no timo are such short bridges asked to take the full loan. The Milk Committee, with a full knowledge of the risks that are being run every Sunday, is considering tho wisdom, of securing lighter lorries for this one councillor to a Dominion representative! "because the Hallway Department will-not put on an engine and a trucK.