MILK SUPPLY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20587, 1 July 1932, Page 14

MILK SUPPLY.

♦ WELLINGTON'S SYSTEM. PRAISE FROM MELBOURNE DOCTOR. - • ' (nox on <rmr cobbispokmst.) SYDNEY, June 24. High praise for Wellington's municipal tniiir supply baa been given to the Melbourne City Council -by Dr. Sent Hnghes, who lifts just returned from New.: - -ji Zealand.' Ha said there was a marked difference in the quality of the milk supplied in the two cities, and that the --? Wellington standard was very much \, g_ higher than that' which ruled in any Australian city. Alore than that, Wei- - lington paid leas for its milk and the . - producer received more for pure milk, than was the case in Australia. - - 71 Dr. Kent Hughes made a very com- - plete study of the methods employed at the Wellington depot, and said that ; ; 99 per eent. of all milk received there was first grade. It contained less than 40,000 germs per cubic centimetre. A * t large proportion contained less than 10,000 germs, and some of it leas tlian 6000 germs. Melbourne milk often cor* tained millions of germs per cubic centmetre. In the Wellington depot 50C) ■ < samples were tested every month as against a few hundred samples in Mel- . bourne. In fact it could be said that .." if the whole of the Wellington supply was " Y thoroughly tested, not only for gernJi f but for dirt and so on. In Wellington "■ the milk was bought on a butter-fat , ;■. content, so th&t there was every in* duoement to the producer to supply milt . of the highest quality, the butter, aofi- jl'M tent sometimes reaching as high as 4.7.-'*.■£ The price to the consumer in Welling- -11 ton last year was 23Jd a gallon and to the producer lOfd at the farm gates, ■i: Two years ago the price to the con- -'< sumer was 7d a "quart for eight months --jJj of the year and BJd for the four ;» • winter months. That reduction, said ■; f Dr. Kent Hughes, was due to the fact , that the City Council was fast redue- •7?-:; ing its interest bill and desired to provide milk at a Bmall profit only. Tins year it hoped to bring the prico down : ||g to 5d a quart. He pointed out that jjjjg when the City Council took over the milk supply it paid £38,000 in cotepensation to the original distributors in the eity. Its present premises tott ||p| £160,000, and the cost of the original preflrises and initial losses because of . rts inexperience and difficulties at the outset came to nearly £40,000. To-day the v. Council owed £135,000 and still has the original premises an asset.