MUNICIPALISED MILK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 139, 14 June 1935, Page 6

MUNICIPALISED MILK.

It is desirable that the public should realise clearly that the amendments to the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Act proposed by the Milk Council, and approved by the City Council, would permit municipalisation of the industry. It is true that power to acquire milk rounds by compulsiori is not sought, but this is only because the Milk Council thinks Parliament might not grant it; the Council is in favour of the amendment. The most important feature of the proposed amending Bill is the granting to the Milk Council of power to handle milk. The chairman (explains that the present Council "has no expressed intention" of using this power, but it is thought necessary to have it in reserve in case of emergency. It will at once occur to citizens that if the Council is empowered to assume control in an emergency, it may exercise that right in normal conditions. A Labour majority on the Milk Council is not an impossibility, and Labour favours nmnicipalisation. A satisfactory feature of the Council's operations is the increase in consumption of milk, but the average consumption is much too low f and the Council is justified in asking for authority to spend money on propaganda. The chairman says that the Act was framed and passed to "overcome the bleeding of the milk industry." Let the Milk Council never forget that there is another party whom it is possible to bleed, and that is the consumer.