THE MORNING MILK

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 123, 22 February 1928, Page 12

THE MORNING MILK

WHY DELIVERY IS LATE EFFECT OF RECENT LEGISLATION “Recent legislation under the Shops and Offices Act is giving the officers of the Milk Department a lot of anxiety and worry,” said Mr. W. TI. Bennett (Chairman of the Wellington City Council’s Milk Committee) yesterday. “Every mail brings shoals of . complaints, and the telephone is going in and out of office hours, demanding the personal attention of the acting general manager.” “The position is,” he continued, “that every customer wants his milk delivered before breakfast, and to meet this demand an agreement was made bv the department in which for a certain monetary consideration the . employees started work at 2 a.m., this being” two hours earlier than the Act allowed. This arrangement was made with the concurrence of the Labour Department. Last session other cities of the Dominion sought to get, by an amendment of the Act, what the department enjoyed by private agreement. As a result of these outside efforts, the Act was amended to allow a three o’clock start instead of 4 o’clock, and the Milk Department was called upon to work within the new law and start delivery at 3 instead of 2 a.m. This means that in every round in the city consumers at the tail end do not get their milk early enough for breakfast, forcing those consumers to hold over sufficient milk for the next day’s breakfast. The recent hot and muggy weather adds to the difficulty, the last of the rounds being delivered in the hot sun. The department have endeavoured to meet the position by putting on extra carts, but there is an economic point beyond which the department cannot go. As it is there is a fairly increased cost of delivery.” . Mr. Bennett stated that he did his utmost to get the legislators to at least not interfere with the milk committee s private agreement with the employees, but they were adamant, and would not agree to the department going outside the law, so the blame should go on the shoulders of those responsible. In the meantime he urged consumers to use good judgment as regards the position and conditions in which their daily supplies are kept, and said they could rest assured that everything possible was being done to meet the changed position.