The Sun SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1914. UNCLEAN DAIRY FARMS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 139, 18 July 1914, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1914. UNCLEAN DAIRY FARMS.

A month ot. so ago a magistrate in Auckland imposed the maximum penalty on a vendor convicted of having traded adulterated milk. His Worship expressed himself in emphatic eommerit as determined "to inflict such penalties as would deter suppliers from tampering with the inilk. Borne weeks later a Wellington vendor was" disagreeably surprised when he, too, on conviction, was fined the maximum amount. On paper the punishment looked severe to the point of harshness,-but the magistrates made it quite clear that, to their minds, too great a leniency in the past had encouraged the retailers, to. risk a small fine for the considerable profit accruing by virtue of adulteration. Public opinion will endorse that view. The ravages of bacteria-loaded milk amongst young children havje stimulated a- sane public resentment against the dishonest tradesmen, and against the dairy farmer who is careless of the regulations that prescribe a healthy cleanliness from cow to can. The dairy owner is .the ,chief source of danger. Recognising this fact, the la-w has gone direct to the source of supply. It has required the dairy, farmer to take out a license, and has provided for a system of inspection. The particulars concerning two such farms within the purlieus of Cliristchurch,. and; which are set out on this page, are proof positive that a dangerous neglect. is being permitted. According to the writer here.are two licensed dairies concerned in supplying milk tc the local public under conditions of the most disgusting and unsanitary nature. For these people the law does not exist. While others scrupulously regard the conditions of their license, these suppliers flagrantly ignore their responsibilities. It is plain thsit" if the inspection provided for in the Act were faithfully car- j lied out in every instance, there would; be no such primitive, unclean, and unhealthy dairies. Milk retailed under the circumstances recounted by the investigator becomes a public danger as soon as it leaves the yard. It is the business of the Health authorities to look into the matter. The facts are in- j contestible, the offending establishments are easijy accessible. How they ha\ e ] been overlooked so long, only the tie-, partment itself ca.fi say. The milkman who "fixes" his milk is mean, and as guilty j of peculation as any till-sneak, but the man who conducts a dirty, unkempt j dairy is a distinct menace to the community. Nothing can condone or justify such an, offence against the public weal as purveying milk which has bee'ii exposed to the malignant bacteria that flourish in-filthy milking yards. An.) it is a reflection on the methods of departmental supervision that almost under the shadow of the Cathedral such establishments,: have been permitted to carry on their busiuess without let or hindrance. That these things should be, is .unfair, to those dairymen who take pains to comply with the regulations. It is absurd and illogical that in a country where a Pure Food and Drug Act is in operation there should be this grave laxity with respect to such public necessities as dairy farms. And it is equally' absurd that, while the milk vendor who retails the indispensable fluid from door to door is closely watched, the man who, it may be, supplies the milk for the round, and whose dairy is, in fact, a most Unlovely byre, should be able to do a greater wrong without interference. ;