Dairy Factory Practices: Inquiry Sought

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 October 1950, Page 2

Dairy Factory Practices: Inquiry Sought

WELLINGTON, This Day (P.A.). —Undesirable practices in the manufacture of Dairy produce are alleged by the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Dairv Factories Workers’ Union in a request to the Government to set up a Royal Commission to investigate present methods in dairy factories.

The union’s request, which was supported at a mass meeting of dairy factory workers in Palmerston North recently, has been acknowledged by Mr W. H. Fortune, one of the Ministers assisting the Prime Minister, who said the representations were being placed before the Minister of Health, Mr Watts.

For many years his union had appealed to the employers, but without success, to bring about an improvement in the methods of manufacturing, said the union’s branch secretary, Mr C. Gough, in his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Holland. As other authorities had failed to bring about reforms, said Mr Gough, his union requested that a responsible tribunal should fully inquire into pre-sent-day methods and practices during the process of manufacture. Urgent needs were a Royal Conimission and amendment of the Dairy Industry Act, said Mr Gough. An official' source in Wellington stated today that dairy factory inspectors were the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture, with the emphasis on seeing that the finished product was of the required standard. It was possible that in the near future talks would take place between Health and Agriculture Department officials on the matter.