CITY MILK SUPPLY QUESTION OF CLEARING HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 71, 25 March 1914, Page 2

CITY MILK SUPPLY QUESTION OF CLEARING HOUSE

MILK-VENDORS' REPRESENTATIONS. The attitude of the milk vendors of the City towards the City Council's proposal for a clearing-house for milk in close proximity to the railway station was put by Mr. M. Myers, representing a deputation from the Wellington Milk Vendors' Association before the Abattoirs, Milk Supply, and Public Health Committee of the council yesterday afternoon. Mr. Myers pointed out that in the interests of the public two things should be seriously considered. These were— (l) That the erection of a clearinghouse would involve considerable delay in the delivery of milk to the consumers, inasmuch as it would mean that the milk now delivered in the mornings in ample time for use at the midday meal would not be delivered until the afternoon ; and (2) that the establishment of a clearing-house would mean considerable expense, and would mean the raising of the price of milk to the consumer, and, furthermore, it would not do away with the necessity for inspection between the time the milk left the cles? ring-house and was delivered to the consumer. As safeguards for a pure milk supply, which the vendors were as anxious to maintain as the City Council or the public, Mr. Myers recommended that the Agricultural or the Public Health Department might inspect the milk at unexpected times at the farms, between the farms and the railway stations, and at the railway station, and prosecute in all cases where adulteration was found. If that were done, he submitted the erection of a clearing-house would be unnecessary. It was work that should be done not by the City Council, but by Government departments. Such an inspection, together with taking samples from milk vendors, should prove a sufficient deterrent from adulteration. Mr. Myers also suggested that the drivers of milk carts should be licensed as well as vendors, so that if any milk was found adulterated for which the driver was responsible, his license could be cancelled. Mr. Myers pointed out that the council issued licenses to persons to sell milk who had not the places to store the milk or the facilities for keeping it under proper conditions. This should not be done. If the precautions suggested were taken it would not be long before the city had a pure milk supply, and that without the expense of erecting a clear-ing-house. Councillor J. Qodber, chairman of the committee, said that the council had really done nothing definite in the matter, and that the question was still open. The committee would give full consideration to the arguments Mr. Myers had put forward on behalf of the milk vendors.