Opotiki News

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 364, 27 October 1932, Page 6

Opotiki News

Our District Representative)

BOROUGH COUNCIL 'QUESTION OF MILK VENDORS LICENSES UNDER REVIEW

(From

The Borough Council meeting held on Tuesday evening constituted a record for brevity, both as regards the number of councillors present and the time taken, the whole of the business being transacted in forty minutes. The councillors were : — Crs. J. T. Thompson (Mayor), T. Hitchens, H. M. Budd, S. Shalfoon, F. J. Short, C. Fleming (clerk). A letter was received from the Unemployment Board showing variations of the working of the unemployed relief workers' scheme which local bodies could adopt and also a circular advising that in the case of relief workers who would otherwise have worked on Labour Day were to granted a holiday and paid, but not men who would ordinariiy have been standing down. The Auckland Provincial Employers' Association wrote advising the date of their annual meeting, and also enclosing details of the new award. Mr. H. D. Irwin wrote advising the .council that if they would fence the western end of Richard Street (near the viearage) , he would be pleased to supply posts, and trees for planting. An account was enclosed with the letter for 200 trees at 9d. each supplied to the council. Replying to a question by Cr. Shalfoon as to who had authorised the purchase of trees, Cr. Budd said, that although he was not sure, he thought the trees had been obtained from a road which ran through Mr. Irwin's property, and if this was the case, the council would not be obliged to pay for them. The clerk pointed out that Mr. Irwin had been very good in supplying trees for planting in different reserves, etc. Cr. Shalfoon expressed the view that all purchases should be authorised by the council before being made to avoid arguments of this ki.id. It was decided to hold the account over until next meeting to allow the clerk to make enquiries. An application for annual leave was received from the traffic inspector and was granted, the clerk being instructed to make similar arrangements to last year for his relief. A similar application from Mr. C. Payne was granted subject to the foreman's approval as to the date.

Milk Vendors' Licenses When the health inspector's report was read, Cr. Hitchens asked if the inspector had not been requested to supply the names of milk vendors from whom samples had been obtained for testing instead of the number of samples so taken. The clerk said that he had only been asked to supply the number and that the inspector had called in at the office and given him the information. Cr. Shalfoon objected to the. fact that reply had not been made by letter. The clerk then undertook to aslc the inspector to write officially on the matter. Cr. Hitchens contended that all the names of vendors of milk within the borough should be in possession of the council in order that the inspector's testing could be checked.

After reading a letter from the health inspector on the subject, which had come before the council in August the clerk said that he was obtaining a list of all licensed milk vendors from the local stock inspector and on obtaining the list he intended to write to them all advising that they must take out borough licenses. Cr. Hitchens said he would be satisfied if this were done and the. inspector tested all milk offered for sale from time to time, but in the past he believed it had been the praetice to take samples of milk sold by the two chief vendors, but to neglect the smaller ones. He asked that the matter should be pressed home and not neglected as such a practice would be unfair to the bigger vendors. Cr. Budd suggested that as the council apparently had the safety of the public health in hand and more especially that of the infant population, it would be much more effective to forbid the sale of any but pasteurised milk within the borough. He quoted a case in Gisborne where a man had built up a substantial business by the sale of pasteurised milk.

The matter was then dropped, pending the receipt of the list of licensed vendors from the stock inspector. Cr. Short called the attention of the council to the bad state of the road at the corner of St. John's Street and Duke Street just opposite the cemetery. He said that there was a water filled hollow about a foot by half a chain long and five or six feet wide in which the water was becoming stagnant and was likely to prove a nuisance during the. hot weather. As part of it was in the borough and part in the county the clerk undertook to call the foreman's attention to it and also that of the county engineer with a view to co-oper-ation in dealing with the matter.