The Dairy Regulations

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4387, 18 March 1909, Page 3

The Dairy Regulations

A largely attended meeting convened by the New Zealand Farmers’ Union was held in the old Borough Council Chambers, Hamilton, on Saturday last, for the purpose of discussing the above There were present—Messrs Allen Bell, Chairman, A. Kay, W. Fuller, John Fisher, T. Paterson,; R. Kay, J. Gane, G. E. Churches, D. Cavanagh, Ranstead, Blackett, H. O. Cooper, D. Angus, McConkey, J. Pollard, Jas Parlane, G. F. E. Edgecumbe, Thos. Hinton, Speedy, Moroney, Smith. Fullerton, H. U. Poynter, Howie, Blackett, Furze, Penniket, Higginson, McGloin and others. Mr E. Clifton, of the Agricultural Department. was al so present. Apologies were received from Mr F. W.Lang, M.P. and Mr Wesley Spragg, mannger of the New Zealand Dairy Association. The Chairman expressed pleasure at the large attendance, and also at the prescence of Mr E. Clifton. He said he thought the majority of the dairy farmers were not adverse to reasonable regulations, but anything that would tend to hamper the great industry should be done away with The regulations, had, no doubt, been framed with a view of furthering the dairying industry, but it was apparent that those who had acted with the best intentions had failed in their object. Mr Clifton, on being called upon to speak, traced the history of the movement from the cpmmeficement. In the first instance, neither the Government nor the Department of Agriculture sought to undertake the supervision of this important industry. They quite realised that departmental duties were already exceedingly extensive, and therefore new fields of exploitation were not eagerly sought for. It was not always popular to be coercive, and this was not undertaken except for useful purposes. The idea originated in the South Island, where the suppliers applied to the Department to undertake this work, and offered to give 6d or Is per cow. Two years later he receive! I an invitation to attend a representative meeting at Palmerston North. This meeting was of opinion that as far as appliances were concerned little improvement could be made, but that there was room for im provement in the condition in which the raw material was landed at the factory ; and it was finally decided that the Government be asked to undertake the '

general supervision of the milk supply of l< ; the Dominion. He reported the result of the meeting to the Minister, and it was decided that Government would undertake the work. Hence the appointment of the inspectors who have been supervising it for over 18 months. Those men were men of experience on farms and in factories. The dairy regulations were never brought forward as tt e line on which they should be absolutely carried out, but more as a guide to the ultimate outcome or a guide to the dairy community as to what to work up to. It was an impossible idea that the regulations could he employed in toto. Take the Noxious Weeds Act or Rabbit Ac}, under which, if applied severely, there would not be a settler in New Zealand who would not be within the precincts of the Court during the year. It was the intention of the Government to quietly bring the regulations about in a fair way—far away from iserious coercion —which would spoil the very object aimed at. ’ The dairy industry was far too important to do anything that would even embarrass it. There were some men whose supplies were inimical to the interests of other suppliers, and over whom supervision was nr st es ential. It had taken some time to get the city milk supplies into order, but they were now in

a most satisfactory condition. There were now 4650 registered milk suppliers and the prosecutions since 1901 had only amounted to £259 in fines, most of which were for non - registration, and only eight or nine for adulteration of milk, Icwas not 1o be expected that the Dominion would increase to a very large extent the enormous quantity of butter produced ; but what we had to think of essentially was quality. It was said that our butter was up to the standard ; but it was quite possible that our standard was not high enough. If we could oaly keep up the whole output of butter aud cheese ,to the highest possible standard we had nothing to fear from the competition of countries which were flooding the London market with second or third class butter. This was a most essential point, because our butter was now dealt with by the most critical consumers in the

world. If we only kept our butter up to the highest standard we had nothing

whatever to fear. Mr Clifton then dealt with the regulations He said objection had been taken to clause “ e ” but he emphasised the fact that the word “ hereafter ” covered it. As to “ii” of clause “ f ” it was difficult in the winter time to keep the mud away, and in the summer time perhaps the dust was even worse. It was not necessary if a man owned a herd of 50 cows to build a yard which would hold all those cows;

but only the number which it was

intended to milk at the one time The < intention was that a reasonable yard should be attached to the cowshed, i Provided the yard were situated 30 yards away from the cowshed, it wa3 not necessary to have a coucrete or wooden floor ; but it was necessary to have such a floor to the race. If the yard were

alongside the cowshed a wooden or concrete floor was necessary ; but it did not involve a very great expenditure. The clause relating to washing the hands after milking each cow was a precaution against the spread of contagious mamitis. In reply to a question from Mr Furze, Mr Clifton said under reasonable conditions no inspector had power to stop a man’s milk going out of his dairy ; he could only summon the offender to , Court. "Replying to Mr Cooper the Speakersaid he would not be in favour of insisting upon a supply of towels being kept in the yard. • In reply to Mr Blackett, Mr Clifton said it was an insult to common sense to say that the Department was going to hamper pioneers m the industry. After giving further information Mr Clifton retired after receiving a hearty vote of thanks for his kindness in attending the meeting and the information he had imparted . 1 The meeting then proceeded to discuss the regulations in detail.