HOSPITAL CONTRACT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 67, 20 March 1937, Page 7

HOSPITAL CONTRACT.

REPLY MADE TO MINISTER. "HIDES HIS HEAD IN THE SAND." The earlier statement made by the Hon. D. <;. Sullivan, Minister of Industries and Commerce, as to the quality of flour, of which the Hospital Board contractor complained, is criticised by the contractor, Mr. A. E, Thomas, as inaccurate and misleading. "It is not known," says Mr. Thomas, "what investigations were made by Mr. Hansen,!the travelling baker expert, but his visit to my bakehouse was very brief, and the only investigation which he could make following that visit was of the three samples of flour taken from sacks which happened to be in the bakehouse at the time."

Mr. Thomas points out that, however full the investigations may have been, they cannot alter facts known to the whole community. "The Minister," says Mr. Thomas, "continues to hide his head in the sand. He is apparently the only person in New Zealand who does not know that for the past twelve months the Hour available to the public has been inconsistent in :ts quality. This fact is known to every baker in the Dominion, to every housewife and to every user of flour. It has quite recently been commented on from the Government commercial broadcasting station, when reference was made to housewives being discouraged from sending to the Minister their cooking failures brought about by the use of Government flour." Mr. Thomas claims that he has never complained in writing of the quality of the flour, but he has on manv occasions adopted a more direct method of stating his views, namely, by returning flour of a quality considered unfit for use; in every case it has" been replaced without question. The majority of bakers, says Mr. Thomas, have had the same experience, and if the Minister were to extend his inquiries he would find that flour had been returned even by the Hospital Board itself. "The Minister," comments Mr. Thomas, "realising that his statement will not satisfy the public, offers an inquiry under the Board of Trade Act; he knows that the Act requires that such an inquiry must be secret and that the only information concerning it which can be published is that which is authorised by the Minister himself. The Minister's attitude would hardly induce the public to regard such an inquiry as a satisfactory one."