CUT MILK SUPPLY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23879, 1 February 1941, Page 8

CUT MILK SUPPLY

There could have been no marked feelings of satisfaction among mem hers of 'he Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council yesterday when they were called upon to consider coinplaints regarding the delivery of sour milk to householders. It seemed to be the general view of members that the position was due to the late starting hour of work for milk roundsmen, involving a delay in the delivery of the previous day's inilk. This question of starting time was the subject of controversy a few months ago, when the council advocated that the hour should be lixed at 1 a.m. instead of 3 a.m. The Minister of Labour, however, declined to exercise his powers in varying the milk roundsmen's award, and the later starting hour was piled on top of a monopolistic system of zoning. The net result is that the public is getting bad milk —not merely milk which is of inferior quality but milk which, on occasions, is definitely sour and unfit for human consumption. In this matter the Milk Council has a responsibility to the consumers, whose interests in the past have been sidetracked too often in the altercations between producers and vendors. For this reason, the decision to make a, further approach to the Minister on the question of delivery hours is to be welcomed. The people have a right to demand a pure milk supply and. if the Milk Council is convinced that certain industrial conditions are responsible for the present unsatisfactory state of affairs, it has a clear duty to bring the matter before the Government with such persistence and force that the necessary remedial action will be taken.