WATER IN DAIRIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23002, 3 October 1936, Page 14

WATER IN DAIRIES

• THE AMENDED REGULATION PROTEST FROM CHRISTCHURCH (Special to Daily Times) CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 2. No action is to be taken by the chief city inspector in enforcing a recent amendment to the health regulations prohibiting the storing of water in dairies. This amendment was gazetted about two months ago, but it drew a protest from the Christchurch City Council on the ground that its enforcement would be impossible as well as contrary to the interests of the consumer. The reply of the Health Department in Wellington to this protest has been received by the By-laws Committee of the council and the committee has instructed the inspector to take no steps to enforce the regulation, which reads; “No person shall keep or store in the same room or part of any premises where milk is kept or stored for sale any water or stale milk or any other fluid capable of being used for diluting or mixing with milk.” - In its protest to the Health Department the City Council stated that, a number of dairymen kept milk cool by storing it in ice, and although ice was not a fluid it was quite capable of diluting milk. Moreover, dairymen had constructed their dairies in such a manner that artesian water was constantly flowing through a trough in which cans of milk were stored overnight, and to prohibit these practices would not only mean alterations to licensed dairies, but would be directly opposed to the interests of the consumer. To this the Health Department has replied that, although it might appear that the keeping of milk cans in ice or in troughs of water was prohibited, there were cases in which reasonable discretion might be exercised. “The troughs are a convenient and long-established method of keeping the milk, cool, and if they are removed the milk vendor, if he desires to adulterate his milk, still has ample facilities for doing so,” the letter reads. “On the other hand the keeping of water in a licensed milk shop will not be for any obviously legitimate purpose, and should be prohibited.” The chairman of the council’s Bylaws Committee (Cr E. H. Andrews) said that it seemed ridiculous to make such a regulation and then allow part of it to be applied with discretion. It appeared that the last sentence of the department’s letter referred to water not kept in troughs, and that, therefore, it was illegal to have water in a dairy except in a trough. Thus a dairy could not have water for washing purposes. The whole regulation was obviously incapable of fair application.