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11
Increasing attention is being given each year to the
supervision of the food supplies. During 1925 particular
attention was paid to the conditions under which milk is
produced and sold in the Borough and under which food is
prepared for sale in restaurants and eating houses. The
general demand for the sale of fresh milk in bottles has increased
rapidly of late, and rightly so. If proper methods
are used it means the supply of clean, fresh milk, in a clean
bottle, properly filled and sealed under clean conditions.
The idea fails if any of these points are not strictly adhered
to. Experience has shown that the weakest link in the chain
is the cleanliness of the bottle. If the bottle is not properly
cleansed, the object, namely, prevention of contamination
between the dairy and the house, is not attained. Valuable
assistance to the work of this Department would be given if
every housewife took steps, firstly, to ensure that the milk
bottle leaves her house as clean as she can make it, and,
secondly, to ascertain how her dairyman cleans his bottles ;
and, if not satisfied with his methods, transfer her patronage
to some other local dairyman who conducts his business in a
cleaner and more wholesome way. When the new Milk and
Dairies Order comes into force, the powers of local authorities
in dealing with this aspect of the milk problem will be considerably
amplified.
The results of the maternity and child welfare work during
the year and during the quinquennium speak for themselves.
The attendances at the welfare centres have increased and
now appear to have reached a maximum so long as this work
of the Council is continued on the present lines. The various
tables show, in a remarkable way, the saving in infant life
which is demonstrated by the fall in the infantile mortality
rates and in the rate of fall in the deaths of children under
five years of age. If the various tables which appear in the