LOWER HUTT MILK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 204, 26 May 1944, Page 6

LOWER HUTT MILK

Labour Reply To Mayor And Others Speaking at Taita, Mr. P. Dowse. LaIkiui- mayoral candidate for Lower Hutt, referred to the joint statement by the Wellington Dairy Farmers' Co-operative Association and Associated Dairies. No reference had been made during Labours campaign to the butter-fat content of the milk supplied in the Hutt 1 alley, said Mr. Dowse. It was a f.-ict. however, in the words of the Milk Commission, that '•for the year ended December 31. 1912, the Health Department handled . 369 samples of Hutt Valley milk—B.6 per cent, failed- to comply.” Samples ‘of the Wellington city milk department did nut fail to eoiiiply in one instance. With regard to the assertion. that application bad been made in November. 1943, for it permit to import the necessary machinery. Mr. Dowse stated that three permits had been sought by separate interests. As it had been impossible to reconcile these interests, the whole question had been held up. Recently, it was understood, the interested parties hail come together, but the consumers had been entirely ignored. Labour candidates had made no reference to shortcomings of producers or vendors. The quotations from the minority report of the Milk Commission which the mayor had endeavoured to belittle were statements of fact, extracts from expert evidence given and substantiated in the majority report. For three successive elections the supply of milk had occupied an important place in Labours policy, and even had there been no Milk Commission set up in 1943 (the report of which was accepted by all political parties) this would still have been the principal issue as far as Lower Hutt was concerned. Mr. Dowse then quoted the following from the majority report: —Page 25: “A recent communication from the Health Department directed attention to unsatisfactory features at the Wellington Dairy Farmers’ Co-operative Association Ltd.’s depot at Lower Hutt.” Page 26: “In the Hutt Valley ... no person watching the delivery in very hot and dusty or in very wet weather and noticing tbe uncovered condition of the vehicles .would be inclined to approve it as ideal. Page 4: “In the opinion of the Commission it is impossible to ensure at reasonable prices adequate supplies of milk at a high standard unless reorganization of the funflnnicntal methods is effected.’