MUNICIPAL MILK SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22274, 13 December 1937, Page 6

MUNICIPAL MILK SUPPLY

TO Tfi£ EDITOR OT THE PRESS. Sir,—ln a letter that appeared in “The Press” of December 1 Dr. T. A. Mac Gibbon stated that there is no pure unpasteurised milk, obtainable in Christchurch, and that the purest milk contains at least 50,000 organisms a. cubic centimetre. How does this statement fit in with the fact that out of 334 samples that were taken by the Health Department officers from retail milkmen and tested by one of the most eminent bacteriologists, 99 samples contained less than 10,000 organisms a cubic centimetre, 86 samples between 10,000 and 20,000. and 36 samples between 20,000 and 30,000? All 334 samples were tested for tuberculosis with a negative result. All these samples were taken during the summer and early autumn months; and in the last 18 years only two samples of milk out of all the samples that have been tested for the Health Department contained tuberculosis germs. I wish to warn scaremongers about |the enoripous amount of harm they ■are doing by alarming parents who are in the habit of using Nature’s best health diet. I will issue the following challenge. If Dr. Mac Gibbon will get a suitable hall that will hoW a large number of Christchurch citizens and extend to me an invitation to be present and to address the meeting after he has spoken on the benefits to be obtained by adopting a municipal milk supply, and will allow me the same time to reply. I will be pleased to get the opportunity—Yours, etC “ JOHN PARLANE. . December 12, 1937.