MILK CRUSADE.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 March 1926, Page 1

MILK CRUSADE.

lIKVKLATIOXS IX MIvLU'U'B.VT

SYDXFY. I’eh. pi. A medical truth is that the health of a la rye city i' only as good as its milk supply is pure. Doctors are continually ultenny warnings ayailisl the yellei.il supply of milk to large cities such as Sviiin-v and .Melbourne, especially I hat jijr], collies 1 mill the larye cold milk” companies which meet these cities’ <is to a great extent. The nnople seem to evince, yenerally. I> ui a lukewarm interest in the purity ol Iheii milk, and trust to the occasional raids hy Board of Health inspectors on milk distributors’ vans to keep the supplies •it Hi" roouired standard. Some parts of \ew Zealand, and Wellington. in particular. are belter-ordered than hero, and Wellington's supply is often hold up as a model for the cities ol ibis countrv. A Melbourne newspaper, the ‘•Herald,” set out to educate the ~i,l,lie of that city as to the qunlity of ji s milk, and its investiyatinns, carried out with the aid ol the hac-terio-loo-ica! staff of the Melbourne FniverMU- revealed a stale e.f affairs that can onlv he described as lamentable. TESTING TH 1C Ml UK. The "I lerabl” provided twenty householilers with sterilised billycans, ~,,,1 of these Ifl co-operated hy sccuriny j heir usual milk and placing about a ..jut of each Ini into sierlist’ed hollies. ; 1 s‘i provided bv the newspaper. These hollies were sealed and forwarded to Dr Bull. barPTioloyist at Ihe 1 mverj|v T welt I v other householders faking milk in 'sealed bottles look double I heir usual <|uaul itv. and a bntlh* from .■nch of them was conveyed with, the . Haciv to Dr Bull. A third series ~f ten samples were purchased at various suburban mixed shops, and alier being Inniylit in sterilised cans, were placed ill sterilised bottles, seated, and aDo despatched in the university. In this way. ilie “ITerald" hoped lo secure as’ many varied samples as possible. Its main idea was to do what il alloyed the floverimient had refused In do carry out a proper test of the milk as li reached (lie consumer. The i lovernment ofliciaD. it appears, carry

~n | bacleri oh'ijii a I ie I of milk as il dairy farms and dairies. lull (lie paper considered that bolwoep ihese original ing sources ol supply and the consumer there were many opportunities for coniamimiiiou. The paper’s

knowletlye of the methods of ppidic--tiou. t re. usporl a i ion. and disli'ihul ion. made ii feel Iliai f'lovernment complacency on the matter was ill-founded. The “Herald" look as its standard, that of New Void:, which is Hint milk con tain iny over 100. 800 bacteria per

c.c. is not iii for human consumption. This standard, if asserts, should not be lower for any large city. BELOW STANDARD.

Tim examiuaiion hy Pr Bull and his assistants showed that 00 per cent ol the samples were below Hint sol standard. and therefore unlit for human consumption. fn oilier words, three mil of every live of the 49 samples submitted to Dr Bull uero found to eonlain more than !00.000 mirro-orgaiiFmx in jhe cubic centimetre (plate !’uo or Hirer of the samples roiiiaiuod

as mum' as L>.009-B’io oi these mici.*orgnnisins to the cubic centimetre. The "Herald" regards the result of i!< test as evidence that the supervision of tins < l: ivornmen t depart lue’ii res|ioiisible D lax and ineilieienl. and that inspection V n'u - iil’.'c-i, ally si riel. Hi- needle.to say that tin- people will ibiek -«-• toil.