THE CITY AND ITS MILK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 144, 12 March 1908, Page 6

THE CITY AND ITS MILK.

Wiikx one has . complimented the Milk/Supply and Public ,Health Com,mittee, of the City Council upon presenting a report on the'question of improvement of the. City's milk supply, •one has about exhausted all that , can be said in the way of compliment. The ireport, which was presented to the City Council last night, has the merit of going into figures—an agreeable change from tlie ; futile platitudes and unpractical: talk that has made up most of the agitation .for'.." municipal milk " —but.neither of the alternative schemes proposed can be cpnsidered of very great value, even if practicable., What the report does accomplish is to make it clear that the " municipalisation of tlie milk supply" is no mere' simple operation of turning on the tap. We have pointed, out, in dealing with the topic on previous occasions, that in the absence of municipal control of the dairy farms no municipal control of distribution,' however perfect it - may be, can claim to- supply the public with unimpeachable , milk. This-is the main weakness of the major scheme outlined by the Committee,'but as the municipalisation of the dairy farms is out of the question, the Committee's proposals must ~be .considered upon their limited merits. :

The first tiling that will strike the public is the magnificence of the Comfigures. In summary, they, amount to this, that the Council should expend £31,000 as an initial outlay, and should then, after paying £34,'302 annually-in all working.expenses, reap an annual profit of £14,685 10s. .This wonderful result, the Committee estimates, can.be built up upon a retail price of Is. 2d. per gallon. If the Committee's figures are sound, it- is a subject for infinite, regret that the city has, for so long neglected an enterprise that will yield such a staggering dividend as nearly 50 per cent, on capital. Upon the face'of it, the .Committee's figures cannot be sound. It Ms estimated that the 60,000 people in Wellington will consume 6000 gallons of milk daily, which works out at half a gallon for the average household of five persons. That. is probably an over-estimate. In actual practice the scheme would work out very differently from the Committee's rosy calculations.' It is extremely doubtful; in any case whether the heavy expenditure and the multiplication of municipal employees involved in the scheme can be justified by any financial or hygieliic test.

As to the minor scheme, which, inasmuch as it aims at municipal inspection and not at municipal supply, is the sounder in principle, we are hardly more hopeful of good results; chiefly ■ because it doos not promise much in the way of improvement unoii

the existing condition of affairs. All that is really new in it is the suggestion that two inspectors, two nurses, and a chemist should be appointed. Two inspectors -cannot possibly, cope with the work of inspection.\_.lf it is proposed to retain a chemist'to analyse any sample of inilk brought to him by a householder, without cost to the householder, we have, nothing but praise for the suggestion. As much can bo done by the vigilance and interest of the individual householder as by the proposed inspection. At present a''householder cannot have his milk tested without an appreciable cost to himself. By affording easy facilities for this very effective check upon the milkman, the City Council can do more to improve the milk of the city, and do it economically, than by a large and financially doubtful system of municipal supply, or a halfhearted system of inspection.