WELLINGTON'S FOOD SUPPLY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 147, 22 June 1906, Page 6

WELLINGTON'S FOOD SUPPLY.

ANOTHER ALLEGATION. .., . STALE FISH. A fisherman called at the office of the Evening Post this morning and spoke about some fish that he had seen sold at auction in the city. He declared that bine cod and hapuka, all bad, had been purchased by various dealers. "I only tonched one cod," he exclaimed to a reporter. "You smell my hands." Before the pressman could debate the necessity for this demonstration, the "corroborative evidence" was thrust under his nose, and the testimony was certainly strong. The man remarked that he went to .the City Council Chambers and stated there that the fish was unfit for human consumption. A representative of the Post at once pushed some enquiries. Mr. Doyle, Chief Inspector for the City Council, after hearing a statement of the case, went to the telephone. "1781" he called. "Hold that," he resumed, handing a receiver to the pressman. He had rung up the Health Department, and a reply came that two inspectors, at his summons, had visited the market and had found that the fish was not unfit to be eaten. The incident, under the circumstances, is not very serious, but it leads to a subject often advocated in the Post, the •necessity for the establishment of a municipal market for the distribution of milk, fruit, and fish, at least, especially fish, which should practically be sold as soon as it is landed, unless there are very efficient cold storage arrangements. Af present the City (Joanc'd has a bylaw prohibiting the exposure of unv ">lesome food for sale, and officers of the Health Department have authority to enter any premises or land, "at all reasonable times," to inspect food offered for saler They may "order the destruction of anything which they condemn, and prosecutions of the offenders may follow. However, there are many places where food is sold, and the officers are few. Two or three are told off to watch auction rooms, but in order that the public could have an absolute guarantee of the soundness of the meat, fish, fruit, and so on, which they bought at these depots, an officer would need to be stationed there during the negotiations. Thia, of course, is quite impossible under the present regime. The sellers naturally may find it to their self-interest to stop unsound .articles from going into tho mouths of the public, but past experience has shown that this is not a sufficient safeguard, for consciences are not all alike.'" The Chief Health Officer, Dr. Mason, i» a| strong advocate of reform in the methods of giving the people staple items of foods. "There is no question," he said this morning, "that we should have ■ municipal market. It would be a very great advantage, not only from the health point of view but as a matter of convenience. - -Every little place on the Continent has its fish and fruit market, which is quite a feature of the town."