WHAT THE HOUSEWIFE THINKS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 91, 10 January 1918, Page 6

WHAT THE HOUSEWIFE THINKS

AFTERNOON DELIVERIES EESENTED. The averago Wellington housewifo views the niiiK problem with increasing vexation and impatience. She knows that great dairying districts lie within reach of the city. Shu knows that tho prieo she pays per quart is higher than in any other city ot r.lio Dominion. And she knows, too, that for years she has been harassed by bud milk and by recurrent shortages of supply. She is not conversant with all tno details that have been discussed again and again by tho suppliers, vendors, and city councillors, but she has a definite belief that somebody is to blame for a very bad state of affairs.

"I do not know who is to blame," said one lady yesterday, "and 1 am tired of reading contradictory statements in the newspapers. But there is no doubt about the fact that tho milk supply gives mo more trouble than anything else, and the experience of hundreds of other women is just the same. Wo are told by the health officers that we ought to boil the milk, at any rate , in summer, and I make it a rule to do that. It is quite :i common thing for the milk to curdle in the pot. That is not an argument against boiling, because milk that will behave like that cannot be wholesome -in <ts unboiled state. And then lam unable to get all tho milk I heed on many days, '"he milkman leaves half tho proper quantity and explains later that ho was short. Or ho may leave me none at all."

City Councillors should Consult their Wives. "When 1 speak to my milkman abouc it he says that ho is not to blame. Ho tells me the milk as he got it, and sometimes he does not get it. If a c:an of milk goes sour or is condemned by an inspector I may he left lamenting— with young children in tho house, too. The latest thing is that tho milk is to be delivered in tho afternoon instead of the morning. That seems to mo to bo the last straw. I know from my own experience that the milk must bo scalded if it is to keep sweet in the hot weather. Am I to stay in every afternoon to receive the milk and attend to it? If I go out) tho milk must stand in a closed can for perhaps several hours. We shall never bo able to count upon having sweet milk for breakfast, the most important time of the day. The City Council seems to have the businoss in hand. If this is tho best arrangement it can make, with the assistance of an Act of Parliament, then it is about time the councillors had a talk with their wives. Ido not believe any woman would approve of what is being done." A business man, to whom the matter was mentioned by a DOMINION-reporter, said he considered tho City Council, which had : the widest powers under the existing legislation, was showing too much regard for the maintenance of a method of distribution that had not proved successful in the past. _ The citizens did not wish to see any injustico done to tho suppliers, and would not wish to see any man's business confiscated. But tho public also iiad a right to bo considered. "I always had "the impression," he added, "that when we got a clearing station there was going to be an end of this milk problem. But from what I read in tho newspaper the trouble is being increased. Tho milk is to, be inspected, but tho suppliers aro not to be given' a certificate! of quality when milk has been passed. A check of this kind seems incomplete. Then the change in the hours of delivery at tne liomea and the abandonment of Sunday deliveries cannot fail to embarrass tho housewives. lam not familiar with all the ins and outs of the matter, but if the present vendors cannot do bettor than that, the City Council had better buy them out and undertake delivery on its own account."

Public Not Satisfied. The reporter gathered in other quarters that the present results of tho City Council's efforts to improve tno milk supply have not given satisfaction to the public. The morning delivery of milk has been a recognised institution for a very long period of years, and any change is most unwelcome to tho housewives, even if they are assured that the milk they are to get in the afternoon is fresher than the milk they used \c get in the morning. Tho stoppage of tho delivery of milk on Sundays ii regarded with very deep dissatisfaction, more particularly nri there is no assurance that milk will bo available, even to those people who nro prepared to call for it at the depots. 'Hie consumers are anxious to havo pure milk, but they have always been disposed to believe that most of tho trouble in this connection arises in tho city, and not on the. farms, ami wio statement that tho City Council does not propose to give, any certificate of quality to tho supplier, who has had his milk passed at tho station, has not reassured tho consumers.