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Which Were 5,200. This, however, only represents a small part of
the task, for there was the work of Miss Duffield, the issuing of
orders to dairymen, the checking of their deliveries; and finally
their accounts. Letters had also to be written in doubtful cases as
to the wages of the applicants.
So far as possible to avoid injustice we tried in all eases to give
the order to the dairymen who had previously been supplying the
family, but when this was not possible, the nearest purveyor of
repute was communicated with. The staff engaged in the administration
of the Order also included a temporary clerk, who devoted
the whole of his time to the duties. Not only this, it had to be
placed in charge of Mr. Harman, one of the regular clerks, who
supervised the machinery, and at whose instance several means of
saving time on the orders and receipts were carried out. At first
the milkmen could not be paid until the recipients had acknowledged
the receipt of the milk, Which not infrequently led to considerable
delay and hardship through their being too careless to do so.
The approximate cost of the milk supplied was £4,500, without
any addition for administration expenses, which included the sum
of the salaries of the temporary clerk and inquiry officer.
On various grounds, about 10 per cent, of the applications for
milk were not acceded to, but only after strict inquiries had been
made.
(b) Meat. No public abattoir has been established in the
district, and, as has been previously noticed, the number of
slaughter-houses tends to diminish.
There are no means of ensuring the quality and wholesomeness
of the meat slaughtered, as we have" no information when this
takes place. No carcases have been officially condemned as
tuberculous.
(c) During the year there were several instances of unsound
condensed milk being exposed for sale on stalls. Discoveries were
also made of larger consignments, and it was often found that a
visit to one store led to inquiries being made as to the original
source, and so to an inspection being made of these premises
In most of these it was by no means certain that the cases of milk
were sorted out, and no proceedings were instituted, surrender
being allowed. In the case of a very large consignment, the Committee
were asked to allow it to be used for pig food; they agreed to
this, provided that it was disposed of within the Borough. The
negotiations, however, fell through, chiefly on account of price.
There were several applications made for the sale of fresh and
preserved meat in shops, some of which had been used for other
purposes. As these involved various structural alterations an
inspection was made, and the list of requirements forwarded to the
applicants and to the Food Control Department. In most cases
these requirements were Carried out.
There were also several applications from the owners of stalls,
but in these it was necessary to take into consideration the pro-
Visions existing for the storage of such articles, and it was not
always possible to accede to the requests.