"MILK?-OH!"

NZ Truth, Issue 1209, 31 January 1929, Page 4

"MILK?-OH!"

Is The Purity of Infants' Staple Diet Ensured? In the hands of the Department of Health rests to a large extent the welfare of this Dominion's children and adults, and all measures which it is. possible to take to safeguard their physical health presumably are taken.

IT frequently happens, however, tha the Health -Department, is caugh napping, or is so busy compilin statistics, that matters of vital inter est to the community are overlooked until some person niore energetic tha the average writes to the papers, or a unfortunate happening compels th department's tardy attention: The "purity of' milk, the staple die of infants, ancl a commodity m tmiver sul demand should be beyond doubl for there is nothing which can nior easily- be contaminated, or more, rapid ly infected with disease. Having that m mind. "N.Z. Truth' is inspired to ask: "What steps ar' taken at the present time, or have beei taken for some time past to ensun that the milk supplies to pur citie: are of the requisite purity? Hoy many bacteriologi- ' cal tests h^ive been j made during the I last twelve months j m. the principal I centres of New J Zealand? In Auckland, for instance, inspector: under the Pure Foods Act may occasionally test milk samples for puritj arid standard, and secure a 'cpnvictior and . fine— ridiculously inadequate ir view of the nature of the. off ence— against a rascally vendor, -but it is surely every bit as essential 'that^testE as to bacterial purity -should be -cjeaseless and thorough. .-,.;"■■!.- XJ'X-XX-This paper has -rea'sory tp^bfeHeye .that the. bacteriological^ milk 1 tests are not being carried gilt with the vigilance that the public have a right to expect from a supposedly highly specialising and costly department. ■'•■'.' The cause, it may be suggested; is that there is not full coordination between the Government laboratories and the department conC, ==Z

Bodies First

. cerned. And the reason for such lack of co-ordination may be that there is some financial issue at- stake. If this surmise be correct, it is fair to presume that the State, which prides 'itself upon its policy of spoon-feeding practically every individual from the day he or she is. born,,, ot arrives m the country, or would lea<i ;^us to believe it does, is putting health .second to monetary cost, and . iss/ "guilty of an offence against every milk-using inhabitant m the Dominion.,-.'../., ■ ; 5 ~" Though there is said to be a horde of dairy inspectors gallivanting up and down the country to see that the pigs do not play polo m .the milk cans, or the Indian runners '.roost there for the night, there is the ever-present menace of infection/-., ancl consequent disease. which the inspectors are not competent ■'- ' to detect, and could not find time to do so if they were. Tubercular disease is- ~ one of the _^ most.;easily carried ~ m milk. an< * it i- 3 unhappily far from rar^.in New Zealand. Those whom the question of pure milk most essentially -/affects are the children, and it is useless to feed their minds with education if their bodies are fed with a mill, which is not up to. the very purest standard. y The inhabitants jof the cities will welcome a statement based on actual fact, and supported by positive proof, that the milk they consume is of the very best quality, and is put to a bacteriological test at -.tlie ; most frequent intervals, and in,-yali quarters, and that m this respecjij ; the Health Department, regardless "ipf^cost is ever on the alert to protect" tlie! 'infants, and spares no pains to see'Mhat milk is not being sold, as an insidious propagatd_7 of disease, however" unwittingly. __