"WHOLLY A MISCONCEPTION"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 107, 6 May 1926, Page 10

"WHOLLY A MISCONCEPTION"

NO CESSATION OF INSPECTION.

"The whole thing is based on a misconception,' stated the chairman of the Milk Committee (Councillor W. H. Bennett) to a "Post' reporter to-day. "There is not going to be any cessation of inspection. All that has happened is that the control of the inspector has been taken out of the hands of the Milk Committee and put in the proper place, under the Health Committee of the council. This step was decided upon to remove the charge that a servant of our own department was the inspector of our own undertaking, for he is just as much an inspector of what we sell as he is of what the nearby farmer sells. The farmers had always claimed that as our servant lie would naturally lean towards us, and that the principle of air employee being also an inspector was basically wrong. Therefore, as I have said, the contract was removed from my committee to the Health Committee, and the inspector is now an officer of the City Engineer's Department, as are the inspectors of eating-houses, and so on. Moreover, these inspectors are still under the control of the Government Health Department, which has the right to agree or disagree to tho appointment of any man if it is considered that his qualifications are not sufficient. "The annual license fee of two guineas is part and parcel of the Act under which we are . working, and the Milk Committee has no option but to grant the license when the farm in question is favourably reported upon by the Government Agricultural and Health Departments. The foe of two guineas is chargeable under the Act, not through any regulation of \ our own. "The position is just this: The nearby farmers have set up a bogey, building it out of nothing, and, having dono so, have proceeded, by means of a lot of abuse, to knock it down."