THE DAIRY REGULATIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 23

THE DAIRY REGULATIONS.

DEPUTATION TO THE MINISTER. "WELLINGTON, February 8. A deputation from the Wellington Dairy Farmers' Union of Employers waited on the Minister of Agriculture to-day in regard to the dairy regulations gazetted under the Dairy Industry Act. Mr M 'Curdy, for the union, represented that the farmers had been kept waiting for a long time after they had applied for registration of dairy premises ; that in cases before the court inspectors should not be vested with such wide powers, and that magistrates should have the usual power of discriminating; that great annoyance had beeen caused by one inspector approving a course that was condemned by another ; that the time for cleaning milking sheds should be extended to four hours after regular milking time : that the union should be asked to arbitrate in certain cases, or at all events be consulted ; and that better provision should be made for keeping milt vans on the railway thoroughly clean. The {Minister replied that the officers of the department would give careful consideration to the representations made. The desire of the department was to improve the conditions of the industry, and he was satisfied that the union was similarly actuated. The inspectors were all competent men, and tneir qualifications had been carefully looked into. The new regulations to ha jssnad aoulcl bg framed

with the idea not of making them punitive, but educatne, and at the end of the year they could be reviewed He did not suppose they could reach the sta,>e of absolute satisfaction at tho fir-it atrrmpt, but ' they could see where tho -jhoe pinched at the end of the year.