MILK DELIVERY

Evening Star, Issue 23729, 9 November 1940, Page 12

MILK DELIVERY

ZONING CLASHES WITH AWARD AUCKLAND DIFFICULTY [l* tut Usitisu JL’kkss Association'.] AUCKLAND, November d. Milk deliveries iu the Auckland metropolitan area on and alter Monday will bo half an hour later than heretofore as the result of a recent decision by the Auckland Milk Roundsmen’s Union that the roundsmen shall not start work before 3 a.m., in conformity with the new award. The situation was discussed m committee at length this morning by the Metropolitan Milk Council ami Mr C. L. Hunter, liaison officer to the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb. Subsequently the chairman of tho council, Mr I. J. Goldstiuo, made a full statement, which the council endorsed, placing the whole responsibility on the shoulders of the Minister, who, he said, alone had statutory power to remedy the difficulty, but who had given no reply to the council’s representations.

A conference was held to-night by representatives of milk vendors and the union in the presence of Mr Hunter, who stated subsequently that the vendors had decided to try the system of starting at 3 a.m. instead of at 2.30 a.in.

In the course of his statement, Air Goldstine said the difficulty had arisen entirely from the institution of zoning, which the council had effected’ at the request of the Government through the Commissioner of Transport in order to conserve’petrol as a war measure. It was, therefore, the Government’s duty to assist the council in finding a way out. It had been quite clear that trouble would occur under the zoning system unless arrangements could be made for the roundsmen to start earlier than the normal hour of 2.30 a.m. The secretary of their union, Mr J. Purtell, had, however, done his utmost to prevent any change. In fact, it ntust be said that he had used every endeavour to interfere with the zoning project. The difficulty was that the customers at the end of some rounds had to accept late deliveries, and this caused serious inconvenience to early workers, including railwayman, who wore obliged to use tho previous day’s milk for breakfast. This was not a serious matter in winter, but in the heat of summer the milk definitely would not keep so long unless the household had a refrigerator, which many people could not afford. The problem, therefore, was intimately bound up with the health of the people.