MILK SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1914, Page 6

MILK SUPPLY

THE MAYOR'S VIEWS The question of the city's milk supply will not be overlooked by the City Council. The Abattoirs Committee has the matter in hand and will probably furnish a report and recommendations to the next meeting of the council. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke), speaking on the questipn to a Post reporter to-day, expressed the view that there were three, important points to be studied in the transference of milk from producer to consumer. First, it was necessary to see that the conditions on the farm were satisfactory, and this work was being undertaken by the Department of- Agriculture. Then, there was the transport to tlie city very lai-gely by rail. This, in the Mayor's opinion, is one of the weakest links in the chain of communication and capable of a vast improvement. The Railway Department should provide special vans for milk traffic— « suitably cooled and ventilated. Further, the milk cans should be inspected, and, if possible, the battered and dented can, which was so difficult to clean, should be abolished. Lastly there should be some central depot for the distribution of all milk destined for human consumption. This depot should be under the control of the local authorities, but the Mayor is altogether against anydirect municipalisation of the milk supply. He believes the duty of the municipality should end at thorough inspection and supervision by a competent expert official. He expressed a hope that the Government would co-operate with the council in bringing about the reforms indicated. '

Another assisted immigrant, driven to desperation through want of food and shelter, called at the Russell-street lockup at 1 o'clock this morning (recorded the Melbourne Argus on 30th December) and begged to be locked up so that he could share the food and accommodation of the prisoners. He said that his name was Sydney Gilbert, that he was aged 19 years, and was formerly a brass roller working in Birmingham ior 25s a week. "The Government agents in London," he said, "assured me that I would get plenty of work in Australia, and I paid £3 for my passage here. I landed in Melbourne on the steamer Ballarat about seven days ago with £1 in my pocket. The Immigration Department here got me a job on a farm at Bacchus Marsh, and I had to pay my own fare there. After a day, however, the farmer said I was no good to him as I could not milk. I paid my fare back to Melbourne and the immigration officers told me it was my own fault that I was out of work. All my money is gone, and I'm penniless and hungry.' I've only had two meals in four days, and I was lucky enough to earn one by helping a man to unload his cart." The police could not lock up the unfortunate man — who has one leg deformed — but out of pity for his condition they gave him money out of their pockets and a large parcel of bread from the prisoners' rations-box._ "This will last me for a day," he said, as he left the lock-up with directions from the police as to where he would be able to obtain a night's lodging for 6d. An international rifle-shooting meeting is to be held at Panama about March of 1915, on the occasion of the opening of the Panama Canal, and this will be attended by representatives from probably every civilised country. Splendid inducements are being held out to shootists, the prize for the championship being 5000 dollars. Quite a number of prominent New Zealand marksmen have (according to the Auckland Herald) taken the matter up very keenly and intend competing at this big meeting, which will mean an absence from the Dominion of at least four months. If possible the men will go as a team representing New Zealand, and arrangements aie already in progress, chiefly through Mr. George Loveday, of Ohura, to obtain all necessary particulars as to how the meeting will be managed, tho govcvnmu eonditioni, and tho Kind of ■ rifles tad ammunition to be used