THE MORNING'S MILK

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 75, 21 December 1907, Page 3

THE MORNING'S MILK

¥(HERE THE TROUBLE COMES IN,

IiAIKY .tfA^MERS^DO'THEIR, PART, j : Wellingtonians- will ,;be interested in ' the speeches' made;.', at the 7'opening ,of the Jj'eathbrston' milK-'cooling house yesterday. The'establishment has been erected for'tho purpose of cooling the .milk from the various - -dairy-farms, and dispatching .it to Wellington packed' in ice, so -as- to keep the temperature down' to about '40' degrees, and thus retard-the development of bacteria..; .Tlie chairman "of this.'lcompariy of dairy farmors T; (Mr. ' :3j';S.' Cundy.),- .'referred to the objects of'the concern, and said pasteurising facilities were provided for,- but would not . be put into operatioii')UiilGss"thft exigencies of 'the ifr->-They were being* ■prbvi3oJ : io c -meet«any>ii'p6sition' that the Health .Department might force upon thoml v ..'The coolinjg house was established . in consequence of the .demands of the Health Department, the public, and the newspaper. .Press'for a bettor milk.supply! Dr.yMason' had recently 1 condemned tho. milk sent to Wellington as unfit for human food, but the faulty arose, from the way in which tho milkafter it reached.the'city, and the way it was left, standing at street corners. ... i'eatherston farmers at present sup- . plied' milk Wellington in' the winter months only. ' This, was' not" satisfactory, " ' and .it was intended,- with tho aid of the cooling house, to take part in the summer supply also.. They wanted to bo able to say / to Dr. Mason that.their milk was fit to feed babies or anybody, else, The latest thing in milk how was, of course, humanised'milk, but they did not-intend to touch that commodity .till the demahd forced them to do so. Their cooling .machinery would enable them, to send out 'milk'in such a state that the; microbes' l that floated about Wellington could not'exist in it. The authorities on microbes.told them that, if they got their milk down to 40 degrees, and kept it at that temperature, the .germs ceascd to dovelop. They . intended to follow tfiat principle,, and 1' land thoir milk in-Wellington in such an ex- ' cellent' condition ,that anybody- could go into a milk shop and ask for a glass of , Featherston milk with as much • confidence as they would go into a hotel and ask for. a glass of whisky—confident :that thev would not be poisoned by it; Cooling was unquestionably necessary. He brought over' that.morn- • iilg'. a can; of''milk- at the temperature at , which he and-all-other dairy farmers had been sending it 1 to .Wellington.: It', was tested at the. cooling house and found'to bo at 63 ; - ' -degrees. In the cfioling.room it .would fall to •'v. 40 or '42 degrees,''for the ro'orir'was left at a tempe'raturo of'4o degrees. Some of the milk was not sold till the following day after it; reached Wellington, so that thorough ,- cooling was imperative. Rut cooling at the iJ'eatherston end "was not alone sufficient. They; desired that a cooling depot be established to, receive 'the'-milk at Wellington, and'.they hoped that the Dominion newsr. ~er wpuld take up this question and help to- bring the importance- of it before the public.' l'ho' milk :'should be kept :- in the cooling'depot at..Wellington till tho , delivery ; men were ready to part it out . to .. 1 their - and not be removed before. If that were.' done, then' it woiild : rest en- , tirely with the milk vendors -whether tho milk kept well \ or not. Until the Government or the City Council provided such a re- " ceiving depot' the condition of milk at the other: end would never, bo satisfactory, and their labours ; at-Foatherstou would bo almost! wasted.>iTheir. enterprise had not been without its difficulties. Tlicy had no similar placed to take as ( a- guide for. .what was - wanted) aiid the Expert advice from different sources'varied-widely, particularly as to the - % amonnt of "power-required. -Tho next thing they would havo to do was to "endeavour to securo tho use offcool'-'railway -trucks. In this matter hitherto .they had received nothing but reverse's and evasive. replies. They were'allowed three minutes to load fifty cans of .milk'into the railway truck, and sometimes ' the truck supplied wo'uld not hold .them, all, ' and the rest had to travel in another truck with'pigs, calves, and other objectionable'goods: Until the Government met them in these matters, their efforts to , give ..the'Wellington people good milk would be defeated. - They appealed to tile Press ' and people df Wellington to help them. . Mr. Camm; engineer,- from Messrs. J.- B. Macliwan and Company, explained the working of the plant; ,'; He caused some amusement'by saying that, ."finally you throw a lump of ico into-'tho milk and send it along to VVellington." ..Tlie;chairman'hastened to explain that the lump of ice would bo enclosed in a jar, and W6uld not "add to the quality of the milk." (Laughter.) ■;' . . Mr. Barton,..another director, said that it woquld bo 'a very clever dairy farmer who - could guarantee that his milk had no dirt in it at all—nearly all the dirt which the public complained of got into the milk after it rc&phbd Wellington. He did not believo microbes entered tho milk on tho farms. Where people wer,o closely packcd together disease always abounded, and extraordinary care! was necessary to keep out the contaminated dust.' There were a lot of inspectors going about.the couhtry who had never bcdii. dairy farmers and knew nothing about" the difficulties which were encountered.'Tho Department ought to select mon who ~ possessed ' more expei'icnce and more

Mr. A. 31. Wilkinson (director) said ho was in Wellington last week, and such a terrific galowns blowing that the cloud of dust-outside the Government railway station completely hid the Hotel Cecil from sight-.' Yet tliero was a man in a cart with twenty cans of'milk, pouring the milk from-o'no can to another* Oil the same day lie- -wort into an hotel ifnd saw a can of milk left alongside a urinal. It was still there four hours later, and was afterwards, 110 doubt, removed' and sold to the residents of Wellington. It was' urgently necessary' that the four chi'of cities should be provided with clearing houses, as proposed by Dr. Mason. He mvderst'ood the delay of the City Council was duo to the fact that they were waiting for regulations that would bo published. If the public authorities failed mucli longer in ' this matter, tho farmers must get a clearing-house of their own. .He and his-fellow-directors had figured out the cost, and concluded that'it would give an enormous profit. The present; loss on 1000 gallons of milk per day, in bad debts, sour milk, and-other• leakages', worked out at about £'1000. or £4500 Some time afterwards, tho'City Council's committee-, estimating Wellington's milk supply at- 6000 gallons per day, came to a very similar conclusion. Tho Railway Department was Harassing the milk and : had lately refused to allow tho milk distributors of South Wellington to get their supplies at Te'-Aro station, and forced them to cart it from the Lambton Quay station; The railway rate of ljd. per gallon of milk from Featherston : was excessive. ' * Mr. J. G. Cox urged the importance of constructing a more direct railway line from FeatheVston to Wellington, to shorten; the journey •to two hours. Featherston would then become not only a great milk-producing district, But "the sccond town to ■Wellington." . ' ■ Prosperity to the new concern'.was drunk in various beverages, accompanied -by biscuits and Feathorston's -famous'.Cheddar •chccso'.".