The Feilding Star. SATURDAYT FEB. 3, 1894.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 230, 3 February 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAYT FEB. 3, 1894.

DAIRY FACTORIES AND HONESTY. , — Now that the dairy factories and creameries are in full swing, and the j amount of good they do to the farming community in particular, and the public generally, is a patent fact, there is one very important matter we would like to draw special attention to, and it is this. These factories can only be a success so long as the proprietors are enabled to work them at a profit, and to do that contributors must supply their milk in its natural state, without a suspicion of adulteration. We are aware that many recognised precautions are taken by the receivers at the factories, but if any one or more suppliers lay themselves out to deceive by tendering milk which has been tampered with, they are certain to be successful for a little time, that is until the decreased output of butter shows that there is something wrong. As soon as that happens suspicion is directed to everyone, and many innocent persons are thus placed under a stigma which properly should rest only on the one or two offenders who are really guilty. To put the matter plainly, a man who puts water into the milk he sells in order to increase its bulk, is neither more nor less than a thief, and a very mean and contemptible one at that. We are quite aware that watering milk has, by long habit, come to be looked on as a very venial sin, not unlike smuggling or orchard robbing, but the time honored custom notwithstanding, it is robbery just the same. We will not attempt to conceal the fact that we are aware certain persons, not a thousand miles away from the trig, station on Mount Stewart, have been detected in doing this very mean thing, and we hope that this hint to them will be taken and acted on in the kindly spirit it is given.