WELLINGTON’S MILK.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON’S MILK.

CLAIM AGAINST COUNCIL.

QUESTION OF BUTTER FAT PRICE.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.

Wellington, Last Night. The hearing was resumed in the Supreme Court to-day of the claim of milk vendors against the City Corporation for £1299 damages, being profits lost through the failure of the Corporation to supply plaintiffs with milk required last winter.

The factory manager of the Jeatherston Dairy Co. said should the Corporation make -a satisfactory arrangement with the farmers the supply would go up fifty per cent by the following winter.

Ernest O’Neale, director, in evidence, said it would take Featherston farmers four years to work up their herds to produce a sufficient supply for Wellington’s needg. The price fixed did not suit the farmers, who are not arranging a supply this year. Mr. I’Shea, city solicitor, in outlining the defence, said the shortage of milk in 1919-20 was always apportioned among the vendors. Up to May, 1920, the council gave all th*By needed. The council was bound to take back 2% per cent of the milk, but it was unfair to expect them to, pay 7d per gallon for all milk returned. The price had been increased from Is 5d in May last to 2s id to-day. His Honor: do you propose to get over the difficulty? Mr. O’Shea: Not till the farmers cease to get the extraordinary price they receive for butter-fat. The whole country within a circuit of a hundred miles of Wellington had been exploited for milk for the city’s needs.