CITY’S MILK SUPPLY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20480, 5 December 1934, Page 5

CITY’S MILK SUPPLY.

Constant Surveillance by Inspectors. The eyes of many inspectors are on the city’s milk supply. Even before the cow is giving milk it is looked at by the Department of Agriculture’s inspectors; the surroundings in which it is milked are watched by men from the same department; and the way in which the milk is cooled and cleansed on the farm is still under their control. Then on the way to the city, the vehicles in which the milk is carried and the milk itself come under the supervision of the Health Department, whose inspectors are out from three o’clock in the o morning watching the delivery and frequently taking samples from cans or bottles. With these safeguards, there is little risk of an epidemic being caused through faulty milk. Occasionally, as at Sumner last week, there might be an infection, but such cases are very rare and the wide prohibitive powers possessed by both departments are brought into operation with drastic suddenness. Testing and re-testing go on all the year round, and a few years ago an exhaustive series of bacteriological examinations were carried out by Dr A. B. Pearson at the laboratory of the Christchurch Hospital. Christchurch is the only city in New Zealand which has had this survey and the results were reassuring. “ I consider that tiie results are satisfactory,” reported Dr Pearson on September 10, 1929. “ I do not think that Christchurch has any cause to feel uneasy about its milk supply.” Summarised, Dr Pearson’s conclusions were as follows: Very good, 77.24 per cent; good (including very good) 89.5 per cent; fair, 8.39 per cent; and poor, 2.09 per cent. The British standard of “certified milk” would have been met by 66.16 per cent of the samples. To-day, the Department of Agriculture keeps check on over 600 dairies and between 6000 and 7000 cows which supply milk to the city for human consumption, while a chief inspector and four inspectors of the Health Department are constantly watching the milk when it arrives in the city, taking about 2000 samples a year for testing purposes.