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"or in which, for purposes of sale or manufacture into butter or cheese for sale, milk is
"kept or used, but does not include a shop from which milk is not supplied otherwise
"than in the closed receptacles in which it was delivered to the shop, or a shop
"or other place in which milk is sold for consumption on the premises only."
"The expression 'dairyman' includes any occupier of a dairy, cowkeeper, or
"purveyor of milk."
A point which calls for comment is the removal of the powers possessed by those
authorities who are at present administering milk control Acts, of entering other
districts for the purposes of conducting their investigations.
Whether the abolition of these powers be desirable is debatable, but personally I
am of opinion that it would be a retrograde step to remove such until the new
authorities show that they are in a position competently to undertake their obligations.
The success of the Bill would have depended largely upon—
(1) Efficient local administration.
(2) The efficiency of the Veterinary Inspector appointed; and
(3) The competence of the Bacteriologists who are to carry out the bacteriological
part of the work.
Local administration would, to some extent, have been controlled by the powers
vested in the Sanitary Authority of a district to lodge formal complaint, if milk entering
their district was not of the standard required, but the efficiency of the Veterinary
Inspector or Bacteriologist was not secured in any way, and in my opinion the Bill
should contain a clause providing for the appointment of officers approved by the
Local Government Board.
The Bill was withdrawn at the second reading, and its re-introduction is awaited
with interest.
TUBERCULOSIS ORDER OF 1913.
Some measure of success has now attended the repeated representations of
public health officers throughout the country of the necessity of prohibiting the sale of
milk from cows certified as being affected with Tuberculosis.
The Tuberculosis Order of 1913, which came into operation on the 1st May, 1913,
aims at securing the destruction of every cow found to be suffering from Tuberculosis
of the udder or to be giving tuberculous milk, as well as all bovine animals suffering
from Tuberculosis with emaciation.
It will be noted that the provisions of the Order are confined to these specific forms
of Tuberculosis, but the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have not lost sight of the
fact that in the near future, as a result of the experience gained, it may be necessary to
extend the principle.