THE MILK PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 250, 10 July 1918, Page 5

THE MILK PROBLEM

6 , LOCAL HOTELS SUFFERING. The period of tho greatest shortage of • w, n T tulTent - The situation is aucn that on some mornings regular customers are receiving short measure, ana the task of getting an extra supply in case of an emergency is almost insuperable. The shortage is so acute at the present time that many of the hotels and boardinghouses in tho city, failing to secure their usual supply, are serving up condensed milk diluted with not water, as milk, the proprietors protesting that they can do no better under the curoumstanccs. Tho explanation as to why there should be a shortage—the most acute, probably, in tho history of tho city—is that the Board of Trade has fixed the price at which the dairy farmer must chaagc. This price is a very good one as far as the spring and summer months are concerned, when feed is plentiful and the conditions under which dairy farming is conducted arc easy, ■but when, during tho winter months, the feed is scarce, aud (lie conditions less pleasant (a factor affecting the cost of labour), thq dairy farmer finds that there is not so much ill it, and tho milk , is not forthcoming. In addition, the i cheese and butter factories, offering good prices for milk with less trouble to Iho farmer (who receives back .the skim milk for his calves and pigs) also play a part in the decreasing amount of milk coming into the city now during the winter months, to what it was a . few years ago. • It will be news to mauy who are interested to know that the erection of the proposed cheese factory at ;lic JTutt has sot been proceeded with. Such a factory would, of course, alfcct tho milk supply to Wellington City to some extent. The foundations of the factory woro laid, bat after that tho work was stopped. The Milk Committee of '.lie City Council |rill probably have something to . report on tho general question of the milk problem,'with reference to municipal control, at. to-morrow's meeting of the City Council.