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The standard for registration purposes which I recommended was that which
is laid down in the Corporation's existing regulations, further consideration being
given to any special difficulties as they arose. The advisability of such a course
has been proved by the information obtained during the routine inspections.
The conditions under which milk is retailed in the City are in many respects
peculiar to itself and, in consequence, several administrative problems have presented
themselves which are not easy to solve.
It is a comparatively simple matter to supply the needs of the permanent
resident population, but a very different one to satisfy the demands of its nonresident
day and night workers. This is exemplified by the increasing number of
restaurants and refreshment rooms, and the utmost use which is made of small
lock-up shops, basements, and even open air stalls, to provide refreshment for those
that need them.
Most of the new buildings which are being erected within the City's boundary
are used for the executive control of large business concerns. Manufacturing and
handicraft works are being removed gradually to surrounding districts because
there is no longer room for them. The demand for refreshments, including milk, is
not diminished by this change, though the class of premises at which they are
sought is somewhat altered.
There are no dairies or milk shops, as such, in this area. There are comparatively
few premises where the sale of milk alone forms the principal, or even a
substantial portion of the trade. Where such shops do exist, the over-counter
business invariably is combined with the sale of light refreshments, and an out-door
retail milk distribution of varying dimensions is carried on.
In the remainder, the retailing of milk forms part of a restaurant, grocery,
provision, confectionery, or dry goods business. In most of these, milk is not sold
for the profit derived from it, but because it stimulates trade in other commodities.
The sale of a few quarts of milk per day then becomes an important item of the
total trade. It has been found that the premises, from an official point of view, are
not ideal ; they were, perhaps, never intended for a milk business and may have
been so crudely adapted for it as to provide little protection for the goods retailed.
There may be an absence of most of the essential requirements for the sale of milk.
The multiplicity of articles stored in some of these shops renders frequent and
thorough cleansing, and freedom from dust accumulations on all interior surfaces,
a practical impossibility.
To prohibit the sale of milk, or almost any of the other commodities, would
considerably reduce the daily turnover.
In such cases the following principles were adopted:—In the case of existing
registrations, such improvements as were practicable were made, and the proprietors
registered for a period of 12 months. In certain cases in this category they were
asked for an undertaking to sell milk only in beverages during that period. A
distinction was thus made between milk in small quantity added as an ingredient
to an article of drink (and in respect of which the purchaser can discriminate as to
the quality of the beverage supplied), and milk sold in larger quantity for other
purposes. Such an undertaking, if observed, eliminates the sale of milk as milk
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