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65
With regard to (1) the Bill provided that an authority
may refuse to register, or may remove from the register, any
dairyman whose premises do not comply with the provisions
of the Bill, or with Orders made thereunder.
This will remedy what is at present unsatisfactory in the
Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Order, but as has already
been pointed out by the Medical Press, it makes it more than
ever important that the position of the Medical Officer of
Health should be strengthened by giving him that security
of tenure which is enjoyed by Medical Officers of Health of
Counties and Metropolitan Boroughs.
The production and sale of milk is to be controlled by
the local authorities through the Medical Officers of Health,
who are invested with new powers. It is a notorious fact
that many authorities have been exceedingly lax in their
administration of the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Order,
and a considerable number have not availed themselves of
the powers conferred by that Order enabling them to make
regulations. By the provisions of this Bill, however, the
Local Government Board is empowered to make Orders
for carrying the enactment into effect, which Orders
will be applicable to the whole country, and the scandal of a
local authority composed to a large extent of interested
persons refusing to regulate an industry of such vital importance
to the whole community will no longer be possible.
The prevention of the sale of milk from Tuberculous
cows is dealt with on the lines of the "Model Milk Clauses,"
which are incorporated in many Local Acts, the Finchley
Urban District Council Act, 1908, being an instance. Provision
is made for the appointment of Veterinary Inspectors
by the Councils of County, Borough, or Urban Districts, and
it is left to the Board of Agriculture to issue an Order under
the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, to provide for compensation
of affected animals. I trust that in one of the Orders
made by the Local Government Board or the Board of Agriculture,
some clause will be inserted providing for the notification
to the Medical Offioer of Health of the destination of a