OUR MILK SUPPLY. How the City Council Fence the Question.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 397, 8 February 1908, Page 6

OUR MILK SUPPLY. How the City Council Fence the Question.

NOW, what about our milk supply? It is quite time that some actionwas taken by the public to shake the City Council into a recognition of their responsibility in> thismatter. It is quite evident that if the public were content to let the question drop for all time the Council would never bestir themselves in the direction of improving existing conditions. Week after week, month after month, the same wretched state of af-. fairs has been tolerated. But the public sentiment is beginning to find expression, in words, and there will be a very unmistakeable outburst of public opinion presently against the lethargy and unpardonable neglect of the* City Council. It was supposed latterly that the City Council were making a genuine attempt to grapple with the question of our milk supply, and the public awaited with considerable interest the report of the Committee of the Council on the subject which was presented to the City fathers at their recent meeting. But the germ is still rampant in hte milk-jug, a-nd the councillors still juggle ingloriously with the public health. A report was presented, but it smacked of burlesque in view of the tremendous importance of the subject considered. The report took the form of a scheme for providing humanised milk for infants, at a depot which would cost £2250 to establish, £1000 a year to maintain, and about £600 to lose. ■ • • No one will deprecate the importance of this matter. It is commending itself more and more to public consideration, and the admirable work already done by Lady Plunket at Auckland in inaugurating a campaign in the interests of infant life will give the scheme a very great incentive. Lady Plunket's scheme, as enunciated in her very able address at Auckland, is to bring the best possible conditions for the care of infant life within the reach of every mother in the Dominion. Even those who cannot afford the humanised milk at the regular price may still be sure of obtaining the milk by a special provision. • • • But the Wellington City Council were asked to consider the general public. A pure milk supply is an indispensable condition to health, and the broader lines of our milk supply should have formed the basis 1 of the Committees considerations and recommendations. There should be no difficulty whatever in instituting a careful, rigorous inspection of our milk supply, and its purity should be capable of & guarantee both before delivery at the country railway station and when in the hands of city retailers. And this is what the Committee utterly failed to consider. • • • A mothers' meeting would have gripped the responsibilities of the case with far greater ability, and would have brought some definite suggestion, forward to remedy the prevailing evils. The report was referrqfi back to the Committee. Presumably there was no waste-paper basket in the vicinity. There is little warrant for supposing that this Committee can produce anything other than comedy out of this very grave situation. « • • They have had time. They only needed common sense and ordinary intelligence to know that we in Wellington are exposed to a constant and growing danger by reason of the conditions of our milk supply. But through all the weary months of discussion and agitation they have effected no practical improvement. Wellington cannot afford to indulge the idyosincracies of the Committee in this matter, and probably the next municipal elections will express th« public opinion of these officials in no uncertain manner.