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57
cows shall he periodically inspected, hut in any case I hope the
Council will give the matter the consideration it deserves.
There are 24 dairies in the district which are satisfactory, but
I have to complain of the number (38)0f little general shops which
are registered for the sale of milk. Although there is no law to
prevent the registration of these premises, it must be plain to the
average intelligence that keeping milk under such conditions is
contrary to the teaching of Sanitary science. These shop-keepers
admit that they are not repaid for the trouble and responsibility
of selling milk, but that they do so to oblige their customers.
This large number of milk shops considerably swells the cost
of administering the Food and Drugs Acts and necessitates, perhaps,
sampling one milkman's milk several times the same day, as all the
general shops are supplied from the local dairymen. I shall be glad
to see the time when all such premises will be annually licensed, so
that the Local Authority will have greater control.
The Council were very wise in taking steps last May to compel
all Dairymen and Purveyors of milk, whose premises are not in
Acton (but who come here to sell milk), to register with them.The
power under which the Council acted is given by Article No. 6 of
the Dairies and Cowsheds Order, 1885, as follows:—
6. (I) It shall not be lawful for any person to carry on in
the District of any Local Authority the trade of a Cowkeeper,
Dairyman or Purveyor of Milk unless he is registered
as such therein in accordance with this article.
44 Dairymen, etc., have registered accordingly.
Houses Let in Lodgings.
I had hoped to have been able to have compiled a register of
these premises, but owing to the large number of houses of this
class in the District, I have found it impossible. I estimate
that if I could employ assistance solely for this work, that it would
take at least two years and by the end of that time perhaps the whole