Milk Supplies

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 6

Milk Supplies

Recent changes in milk rounds in Riccarton seem to have been so disadvantageous to one of the milk treating houses (Wright’s Metropolitan Milk Company) that they have prompted suggestions that this company is being squeezed to reduce competition with the Christchurch Milk Company. The changes in the rounds have meant an enforced change for consumers from a supply source with which many have been well satisfied for a number of years. The complaints about these events from the treating house, consumers and the Milk Consumers’ Protection Association are complaints of substance meriting the attention of the Christchurch Milk Board, which allocates vendors to the different treating houses, and directly or indirectly controls the output of each. The Milk Board acknowledges a responsibility to make up the loss Wright’s company has suffered in the reshuffle of rounds at Riccarton; the promptitude with which it fulfils this obligation will be an answer to fears that the board’s purpose is to reduce competition with the Christchurch Milk Company. Unfortunately, the case of consumers who have suffered an enforced change in supply as a result of the board’s actions cannot be met so conveniently. They, it seems, have no recourse except to organise and apply in groups for supply from a particular source. However, the board can give some satisfaction not only to affected consumers but also to the public as a whole if it takes this opportunity to show that it appreciates the value of some measure of competition in the necessarily centralised milk industry that it controls.