MILK SUPPLY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22476, 21 July 1936, Page 12

MILK SUPPLY

MUNICIPAL CONTROL GOAL OF CITY COUNCIL SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATION Expressing its emphatic belief in the complete municipalisation of the milk supply, the Legal and By-Laws Committee of the City Council recommended to the council last night that support bo given to the amending bill which tho Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council is submitting to Parliament. Tho committee was of the opinion that tho proposed amendments represented a considerable step nearer tho goal of municipal control.

A letter from tho Milk Council stated that at tho last session of the previous Parliament tho Milk Council submitted a bill embodying amendments to its existing Act. Certain of these amendments were deleted, tho remainder of the bill becoming law. In dealing with a number of the amendments which it was stated woiv> somewhat strenuously opposed by interested bodies, and were considered by the Milk Council to be essential to tho proper carrying out of its purpose, the committee said the clause giving the Milk Council power to purchase all milk coming into the district would make it possible to arrange the systematic collection of milk and to ensure the payment of the same price to all dairymen. The clause giving the Milk Council power to purchase, collect, treat, store, nnd sell milk' wholesale and retail, the committee thought, also gave tho Milk Council wide powers which the committee thought essential as a further step toward municipalisation. The insertion of a sub-clause, as suggested by tho Executive Commission of Agriculture, providing that the Milk Council should not bring this section into operation without the consent of the Minister of Agriculture, and subject to conditions imposed by him, the committee thought would be in the interests of the whole community, as the provision could bo used by the Minister to further municipalisation at any time as necessity demanded.

.Reference was made by the committee to opposition from various interests as recorded in the commission's report. The New* Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited, claimed that it should be treated as a single unit. The committee felt that the Milk Council should be extremely careful in this matter, and should endeavour as far as possible to purchase its milk at the farm gate and maintain a complete independence. "Your committee desires to express its emphatic belief in the complete municipalisation of milk," stated the committee. "As the proposed amendments are a considerable step nearer that goal, your committee recommends that the council support the amending legislation." The recommendation was adopted.