THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1908. THE NEW DAIRY REGULATIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2919, 15 September 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1908. THE NEW DAIRY REGULATIONS.

The new regulations under the Dairy Inspection Act were presented to Parliament on Friday by the Hon. 11. McNab, Minister for Lands and Agriculture, and were' afterwards ieferred to the 'Stock Committee for consideration. There has been an anticipation approaching: the fearful in the minds of dairymen throughout the Dominion as to what really would become law and what would not under the Inspection Act, and the draft regulations, drawn up a few months back, certainly justified some uneasiness on the part of those engaged i'u the industry. The regulations presented to the House are thirty-two in number, and provide that every dairyman shall apply to the inspector under the Act for registration of his dairy, accompanying it with a ground plan of the cow-shed, race, stockyard and milk-stand, with dimensions shown. Among the provisions which will chiefly interest dairymen and the public are the following:—Fees for registration or

renewal of registration are fixed at —(a) Not, more . than „ two cows in, milk, Is per annum, (b) More than two but not more than ten cows, in milk, 5s per annum. (c) More than ten cows in milk, 10s per annum. Where the cows are stalled overnight, there mus(. be not less than 600 cubic feet of air space for each animal. Floors ot cowsheds must be of concrete or other impervious matter, the walls and floors must be thoroughly swept at least once a month, and white washing must be dona twice a year. Milk must not be stored, sold or treated within 30ft of any place the contents of which would be liable to contaminate it, while cowsheds,"milkin? yards, or stockyards come under a similar regulation. Piggeries must not be within 50ft. Cowsheds must not be within 30ft of any dwellinghouse. In towns of over 5,000 population the minimum distance under this regulation is 100 ft. The water supply is to be protected from contamination, and a sufficient quantity of pure water must be available for the animals, for washing the milkers' hands and cleansing the floor of the ahed. Every person shall on every occasion before commencing to milk or to handle milk in or about a dairy thoroughly wash his or her hands, and again wash them after milking each cow. v No person shall draw milk, nor shall any dairyman permit any-milk to be drawn, from any cow until the udder and teats of such cow have been thoroughly cleansed. Milk must be strained and cooled in an approved manner, and all utensils used in milking must be cleansed within two hours of use. Inspectors have power to conspicuously mark utensils they condemn, and no dairyman can use them, while no dairyman shall use, or suffer to be used, for the purpose of removing milk from his dairy any can that does not bear a conbpicuous metal label distinctly marked with his name. There is a very remote chance indeed of the House again dealing with the subject this session, as it already has its hands too full of work of a more urgent character. It might be asked at this stage, however, whether the evils which some of the more drastic of the proposed regulations aim at remedying are of so serious a character as to justify the measures the House is asked to endorse? One thing is fairly certain, and that is, that if the new regulations are approved in toto the expense of placing milk upon the market must be increased above the present cost, and a rise in price ensue. The community has frequently to complain of dear bread and other staple articles of diet, and to add dear milk to the list is not desirable when it is only a question of regulation, ar.d not the exigencies of supply and demand. The Government is to be commended, certainly, for aiming at the purity of the dairy, but it must not emulate the Danish dairymaid, whose cleanly instincts prompted her to scrub energetically the coat of a black and white cow, in the hop 3 of mak ing it pure white.