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9
conditions have been abolished or materially modified.
The requirements of the " Factory and Workshops
Act " have been complied with, and the inspection of
meat and food generally has demanded much time,
care, and skill on the part of Mr. T. Hill, the senior
inspector. The decision come to by the Council to
take action in certain cases in connection with diseased
or unsound meat, etc., cannot but have good and
far-reaching consequences. The total number of
inspections and re-inspections amounted to 9,174
during the year, and will be found in full detail in the
inspectors' forms appended to this report. This
number is 2.772 in excess of inspections made in 1907.
In my last, and in some former reports, I have
made special allusion to the important question of
milk and its supply, and I hardly think it necessary
here to refer at length to that matter, but I wish to
reiterate the opinion that it is very essential and
necessary whenever practicable that milk should either
be pasteurized, sterilized, or even brought for a single
moment to the boiling point before its use as food.
By such processes the bacilli of tubercle, diphtheria,
enteric fever, etc., are destroyed or rendered inert,
and the consumer of the milk in a very large degree
protected from disease. As a general rule the sanitary
state of premises connected with the supply of
milk has been found satisfactory, and no serious
disorder attacking the comparatively few cows which
give milk in the district has been reported. With
probably as much as 98 per cent. of our milk supply
being drawn from distant areas, it is wise to adopt
precautions. The "Milk Bill" promised by the
President of the Local Government Board to be introduced
shortly, may possibly give sanitary authorities
extended powers in connection with their milk supply.
It will, I trust, be considered that a considerable
amount of useful, practical work has been done during
the year, and I feel assured no really important or
urgent matter has failed to receive attention. I