Milk Treatment House Again Under Criticism

Northern Advocate, 5 August 1949, Page 4

Milk Treatment House Again Under Criticism

A BOTTLE of milk, supplied by the Whangarei milktreatment house, was on view at the monthly meeting of the Whangarei Residents and Ratepayers’ Association last night. Delivered in Third Avenue yesterday morning, the bottle was filthy on the inside and had a coating of what appeared to be grease.

“Although this sort of thing should not be allowed to come from the depot, the people who put bottles out in such a filthy condition should also be criticised,” said Mr F. Moore.

“This has been happening frequently and it is time it stopped. “If this manager cannot stop it, then it is time to find someone who can. He has, got the staff. It is not fair to pay for this sort of stuff.’’ Mr A. Fawcett said that the onus was on the milk department, as each bottle should be thoroughly sterilised before leaving the depot. When a suggestion came from the body of the hall that the department should be handed back to private enterprise, the chairman (Mr S. Hartnell) stopped discussion on that point, on the score that it was bordering on politics and' that the association was strictly non-political. Although claiming not to defend the department, Mr C. J. Homer said that the finding of glass in bottles was not peculiar to Whangarei. One man was employed especially to inspect the bottles and, with 16,000 to do a day, he had a busy task. “So far there have been only four known cases of glass being found in bottles and none as yet has been found in the children’s milk bottles,” Mr Homer added. TO POWER ’"O PROSECUTE. Mr S. Crawford suggested that roundsmen should not lake delivery of dirty bottles. A query whether it was an offence to put out dirty bottles was answered by Mr Homer, who said the Borough Council had not power tv prosecute. Hdwever, if a roundsman found dirty bottles being put out consistently in one place, then the department could write to the offender asking him to rinse his bottles. “Most of the dirty bottles come from the offices and shops, not the residences,” he said. A motion that the council be requested to ask the Milk Authority to instruct roundsmen not to take delivery of dirty bottles was moved by Mr Crawford. Mr Fawcett moved an amendment that the manager sec that the bottles arc perfectly clean before they are refilled and delivered. The amendment was carried. NO COMMENT “I have no comment to make to the press. I’ll make my comment to the authority,” said the manager of the milk treatment house (Mr T. H. Hawkins) when the bottle was taken up for his inspection. Mr Hawkins said it was impossible to detect such dirt in an empty bottle while it was being automatically washed. The bottle had probably been kept under a house for some time, which would account for the hard grime on it. The foreman said the dirt in the bottle was carelessness—up to a point. He showed how the bottles were automatically scoured with jets of hot water. The staff had instructions to take out any bottle which would not come clean, and it would then be washed by hand. Apparently this bottle had escaped detection. It would be hard to see the dirt when tire bottle was empty.