IMPURE MILK.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13007, 8 January 1908, Page 6

IMPURE MILK.

The two milkmen who were yesterday tor bronchos of tho Dairy Industry Act may consider themselves Fortunate in escaping so lightly. Any improper practice with regard to milk,

esjKvially reglect of cleanliness, is dangerous at any time, but in weather suoh ;vs we are experiencing just now, it is nothing less than a crinu' against the consumor, since in Dr. Mason's words it transforms an ideal food for chii'.lrrn into a veritable of ilthoaitli aud death. To our mind the nr.-ii'ct i-,i urccintuiua to ensure tlu> purity <>l t!•:<■• miik supply ia a grave offence for which a fine ni ! twenty thillings and costs is an <.i* ti:"«.'ly iuaJorjimte punishment, and we <-iii! only liopo that tho Magistrate's threat t«> inflict a very severe penalty ii\ any future rase of the kind will havo its diii- effect. It is again made abundantly <->ar that the Ins]x*ctor of Dairies ought to bo given more assist-a!ii-e. *iVf> rrlerml M»me eighteen nK.M'.tlis ago to tho fact that it was in , .; <i-«:-;l>l«' ;or any one man to perform all the duties placed upon the ijiiin.'Ctor with any hone that he could jiivn to the inspection of dairies the time and att<'!!tion tint were retjuired. The .Mafr'>trati> remarked yesterday tint brcif.-hes. of the Act rlid not often <<ui'.. i.-. 'ore i In , Court, u\n\ thot tJi<> natural inlorviice was that the dairynifij ivcru Siitii-f.iciorily i'ulfiiling tho r< (|".;ropicnt:"i <n tin . Act. We do not siiy ih;M tiioy ar<> not, but at the same liiv.n .-uioilirr inference that might fairly I** drawn from tho jiifretr|uoney :•.('rh:i I';.;".-. ;i'.;;-iiKs* v milkmen i> that tho vKii.-. of th" Inspector and his one as- :'■<•)' 100 far apart. Mr .Mc-PhiT'-oii is r<vpo;!.-ib!<'. it scorns, for t!v< Mij.orvision of n<> fewer than tiOO dairy .shods, ;md it is little wonder, imkUt tlie cirrum.«tances, that it i.-. lour iiior. lbs sinte- he previously inspected tlie premises of one of the men l>efon> tiio Court yiwterclifv. A place, as Mr Bishop said, may get "mighty bad' , in four months, and it is obvio that «n.y dairyman knowing the extent of the Inspector's round, could, if h« wished, play fast and |:>o>o with' tho regulations for months after his premises had been inspected, without much fear of detection. Wo are opposed, as a rule, to any iueron=o in the number of inspectors in this much-inspected Dominion, but unless the Dairy Industry Act, with its vise provisions for safeguarding the health of the community, i< to become a dead letter, it i.s clear that there must bo adequate- inspection of dairies. And that, we submit, is an utter imposi-ii.bility when one. inspector and an assistant havo to look after GOO places.