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26
The opinion of the milk purveyors on the price which has to be
paid for pasteurisation must be respected, and any figures which
they may possess of the cost examined.
Althoug no milk is produced in the district, its production
affects us very closely, though no administrative measures here
can directly have any effect upon the supply. We are entitled
though to give a considered opinion upon even the source of supply.
There is one aspect which concerns us in one sense more
directly, and that is the retail distribution of the milk in the district.
One of the questions which periodically crops up is the
desirability or otherwise of registering certain traders as purveyors
of milk. Under Section 2 of the Milk & Dairies (Amendment) Act
1922, the Council has power to refuse registration, or remove from
the register certain retailers of milk. The powers conferred upon
the Council are vague. The section states that if the local authority
is satisfied that the public health is or is likely to be endangered
by any act or default of any person who is registered or seeks to
be registered therein as a retail purveyor of milk, in relation te
the quality, storage, distribution of milk, they may refuse
to register him or remove him from the register as the case may be.
It is to be observed that the act or default is not necessarily one
which is against any statute, order or regulation, but simply that
it may, or is likely to endanger the public health.
Some cases are easy to decide. For instance on Tuesday
afternoon, September 27th, Mr. Kinch and I went to a shop and
asked to see the receptacle in which the milk was kept. The mlik
was kept in a churn on the floor of the shop near the door without
a lid or any other covering. The shop is a general shop, in which
wood, and other dusty articles are sold, and the conditions were
such that the public health might be endangered. The general
appearance of the place was unsatisfactory. Noticing also about
a dozen crates of bottles filled with milk and knowing that the trade
done there was a small one, we enquired into the storage of this
milk. We were told that this milk had been bought to be kept
until after October 1st as there would be a rise in the price of milk
after that date.
In former years we used to class the premises on or from
which milk was sold as dairies and general shops. These terms
are now hardly applicable. Most of those premises which
formerly registered as dairies are now general shops, from which
many and diverse articles are sold. These premises differ from
general shops only in the fact that milk is the principal ingredient