DILUTED MILK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14820, 25 October 1911, Page 8

DILUTED MILK.

TWENTY-TWO PER CENT. OF WATER. A FARMER TO BLAME. MILKMEN EXONERATED.

When the average housewife finds that the morning milk is watery, she generally blames the milkman, but the case which was concluded in the Magistrate's Court yesterday before Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M., shows that it is not always the milkman who is to blame. Thomas Steele Duncan, a farmer, of West Tamaki, sued John Redfern, a dairyman, of Richmond Road, for £14 Is, value of milk supplied, whilst Redfern counter-claimed £60 damages, alleging that through the bad quality of the milk he lost custom. Mr. Prendergast appeared for Redfern, and Mr. Richmond for Duncan. It was decided at the previous hearing of the case to take the counter-claim first, and yesterday, after further evidence had been given to the effect that Redfern's dairy utensils and dairy were always kept clean, counsel addressed the Court.

His Worship said it was proved by the evidence that a quantity of the milk was not fit for human consumption -when delivered. When the inspector made his surprise visit he took two samples of the milk before it reached the dairy, one of which was handed to Duncan, and the other, when analysed, was found to contain 22$ per cent, of water. Duncan, however, did not have his sample analysed to check this, neither did he make any complaint to the inspector that his cooler had been leaking, nor that the cans were dirty. The defence was that the cans were dirty, but the evidence did not. bear this out in any respect, and, in his opinion, the dairymen had not been negligent. The fault , lay with the farmer. The analysis showed that the milk contained 22£- per cent, water when the sample was taken, and yet Duncan asked the Court to assume that it got there by accident. He admitted that his cooler leaked, and the water overflowed into the milk, and yet he did nothing to prevent it. . It had been proved that water was found in the milk on one occasion, and it was safe to assume that it had been watered all along, and it was extremely possible that the water was not pure, and it had, contaminated the milk.

He (Mr. Kettle) was satisfied that, the dairymen were not responsible for the bad quality of the milk, and he felt sure they had rot been negligent in cleaning their utensils. Judgment would, therefore, bo for Redfern. . The question of damages, said the magistrate, would have to bo gone into, and he thought that they should not be measured with mathematical * accuracy These young men had been unfortunate just as they were beginning to make a success (of their new venture. A report that they sold bad milk would spread from one end of the country to another, and do incalculable harm, ruining their business. The question of damages would be held over, in order that the matter might be gone into thoroughly. "