MUNICIPAL MILK SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22343, 5 March 1938, Page 24

MUNICIPAL MILK SUPPLY

•"0 TB» BJOITOB OV THB PRESS* Sir, —It is really immaterial whether Mr Harold E. Fenton has asked ninp questions or 50. What the people really want to know is just why the Labour representatives on the Christchurch City Council voted in a block for a municipal milk supply without consulting the adjioning local bodies and without a vote of the people, and just what would be the effect had they been successful. If the correspondence were along these lines, it would be helpful. The public would know just how far a Labour majority is to be trusted when an opportunity occurs to bring about their Socialistic proposals irrespective of the cost to the consumer, the quality of the article, or the price paid to the dairy-farmer. The circumstances that caused consideration to be given to the milk supply arose when one section of dairyfarmers favoured municipalisation and another seciion wanted the Government to honour its promises and fix prices. The latter were referred to the Christchurch City Council. The council saw fit to call in the manager of the Wellington municipal milk department, and from his report an "enabling bill" (as Mr Fenton calls it) was prepared, recommending a complete monopoly, with little or no raw milk available and with little or no compensation to the many vendors, and that their equipment be bought on a conservative basis. Price fixing was also provided for, but practically all discussion of the matter was behind clossd doors, and very few are aware of the conditions. » The Wellington basis of payment to the dairy-farmer for eight months of the year is approximately as follows: Butter-fat at Is 3d per lb, plus 2£d a gallon. A standard is required, also a reductase test of 250 minutes. Any milk below the standard set is paid for at butter-fat rates, but as it is all mixed together before the tests can be carried out, it is sold to the consumer at full rates. The Wellington milk department finds it necessary to charge 8d a quart in the summer, or £l3O a day or £47,450 a year more than the average price ia Christchurch at the present time. Some dairy-farmers have a notion that the whole of their milk is bought at the above rates, but actually this is not so. They would only sell their quota on a proportional basis and at a standard set by the council. They would be a law unto themselves. This cJass of Socialism, or manipulation ot price levels, is so costly that every known avenue has to be explored to keep the price down to the producer, and after all, there is evidence to show that it is only a patched-up, thirdgrade article. As the council elections are being held in a little more than two months the electors, as is their responsibility, should consider whether they are prepared blindly to trust any section that attempts to take advantage ot the position, as has been attempted by the Labour representatives on the City Council to start a scheme costing hundreds of thousands of pounds and reducing the value of wages with a more costly article.—Yours, etc.. H. BLISS. Heathcote, March 4, 1938. (Subject to the right of reply of Harold E. Fenton this correspondence is now closed.—Ed. "The L_.„JBres6."l . ... -