CITY MILK SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 75, 29 March 1926, Page 8

CITY MILK SUPPLY

ME, FIELD'S CRITICISM.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Your issue of "yesterday contains a characteristic and distorted effusion on the subject of my utterances'at the recent dairy fanners' dinner.

One of the main objects of my observations on that occasion was to point out that it would be infinitely better for tlie taxpayers and the milk consuming public of Wellington, and also, for the farmers, if the council abandoned the expensive and needless pasteurisation and handling of milk and confined itself to an up-to-date and systematic distribution of pure milk direct from the farms.

,The price to the consumer, I said, would probably thus be reduced, and the payments to farmers increased. More milk, which is an essential food, would be consumed. There would be consequent increased . development of the dairy industry in the Wellington district, arid the health of our city population, particularly of our children, would be improved. I made no comparison of tho prices at which milk was'at present being sold in the various cities of the Dominion, nor have I •the information, but not long back such comparison was unfavourable to ■Wellington, and probably it is so to-day. You profess to be afraid of a reversion to tho much-exaggerated horrors' of the.bad old days. My reply is that, under rigid inspection by the Health and Agricultural Departments, which the farmers wolcoina, thero is no such fear, and the nearby farmers have dur'mn recent years proved this up to the hilt. If you have any doubt on this point, and I know you have not, J. suggest that you should consult the heads of the Agricultural and Health Departments on the subject. II tho nearby farmers' milk can be distributed direct from the cow, and in a pure condition, why should not that of the more distant farmers also?—I am, etc -' W. H. FIELD. 28th March. [Mr Field's sneering reference in his opening paragraph requires no comment. The point is: Can the milk consumers of Wellington accept _ tho correspondent as an impartial advisei? Ho produces no .fresh facts iiv support of his assertion that the present municipal treatment of milk is needless and expensive, whereas tho whole history of the milk business in tins city shows that pasteurisation, testing, and elassicftion by the public authority is the Ply effective guarantee of purity and full measure. If Mr. Field were to mniio i comparison of prices, as inquirers have done, he would find that We lington has not paid an excessive nrico for the benefits of municipal control Before control was attempted rieid inspection was tried and found ineffective What grounds are there tor assuming that it would be wore effec-ti-e now? One of tho strongest arguments against reversion to the "horrors of the bad old days" (not "exaggerated" as Mr. Field states) is that capable judges from other parts havo examined our system and advised its adoption in their own towns.—Ed.]