THE MILK SUPPLY.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18392, 28 July 1931, Page 6

THE MILK SUPPLY.

NEED FOR TESTING. CERTIFIED ARTICLE PRODUCTION. DANGERS OF MAMMITIS. Mr C. V. Carryer of the C. V. C. Dairy, who pioneered certified milk in Hamilton six years ago, was diflldent in making a statement to a Waikato Times representative on the subject of milk, being lie stated placed between the devil and the deep sea.

"To attack anyone through the paper without giving one’s name seems cow'ardly,” Mr Carryer said, “and if I publish my name there are always those who believe it to be for personal gain. However something must be done, for such sweeping statements as those made by the Mayor at the last council meeting cannot go unchallenged. If the Mayor was not a medical man, one might put these remarks down to ignorance of the subject. Anyhow the public must not take it for granted that the Mayor voices the opinion of the rest of the medical men or the British Medical Association. ‘‘The British Medical Association in England as a body solidly supports the production of certified and grado A T.T. (tuberculin tested) milk. The British Medical Journal of January 17, 1931 gives a glow'ing account of an experiment carried out with 10,000 schoolchildren when each received three-quarters of a pint of grade A T.T. milk daily. In England grade A milk is the second grade, Certified coming first.

“In the British Medical Association Journ’al of Jiune 13, 1931, Dr. R. Stenhouse Williams, wrote: ‘Those who are within the milk industry know well the very great advances it has made within the last 10 years under a voluntary system of licensing which has only been in existence for a short time. , . In Reading, for example, grade A (tuberculin tested) milk amounts to about one-fifth or one-sixth of the total milk supply and there Is no reason why this should not be the case in other towns in England. The greatest credit is due to the milk industry for the work which is being accomplished, and it would be a great pity if any action was taken which hindered its progress.’

Action by Boroughs.

“In the Swindon Evening Advertiser Dr, Dunstan Brewer, Medical Officer of Health for Swindon, stated: ‘Under the present laws and customs of the milk trade, the milk supplied to the customer may be safe, but it may not be, and what we are determined is that it shall boil down to these (1) That milk shall be sold only in sealed bottles; and (2) that no milk other than certified milk and grade A tuberculin tested milk shall be sold, and until It is pasteurised according to the definition of pasteurisation which occurs in the Milk Order. We admit that in the present state of affairs it is neither feasible nor desirable to make this law absolute for all districts of the country, owing to difficulties in connection ‘ with, rural areas, but Ithese difficulties do not apply to the milk supplied in towns, and we shall urge that the local authorities of boroughs shall have power to decide what grades of milk they will allow to be sold within their boundaries.’

Imperatively Desired End,

"With regard to the Hamilton milk supply and the Milk Vendors’ Association, six years ago I published statements to the effect that regulations for grading milk in Hamilton were badly needed so that the public might know what it was, buying. For Instance, I am the only producer of the Grade A certified and there are no producers of the second grade. So this does not say much for the balance of the milk produced In Hamilton. A great deal of mammltls milk is vended in Hamilton but under a certified milking system 'this would not be possible. Mammltis Is responsible for a good deal of sickness in children. Certified milk is free of this and other pathogenic organisms. “The Milk Vendors' Association, of which I am not a member, is simply asking that all milk shall be subjected to the reductase test, and shall keep up to it for three hours. Certified milk frequently stands up for 24 hours. In their initial efforts to Improve the standard of milk in Hamilton they have my support," concluded Mr Carryer, and I cannot see any reason why their request should not be granted immediately. It is a com,mendable first step towards the imperatively desired end."