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16
In the first case we have of course very little power of
practical worth other than that given by the Food and Drugs Act.
In the second case the lock-up shop is of course registered, but
as the delivery carts and prams are filled up outside our boundaries,
we have very little real control over what I, as an Urban Medical
Officer of Health, consider almost the most important stage in the
vicissitudes of milk between the cow and the consumer—the stage
during which the milk is received by the retailer and stored, or
distributed by him.
But whether the distributing centre be in or outside the
district, the great bulk of the milk sold in Barnes and Mortlake is
obtained by the retailers from one or other of the great collecting
firms, a small portion only being obtained from dairy farms at
Twickenham and other neighbouring places.
The condition of the local distributing shops has been greatly
improved of late years, but there is no doubt that the local
authority should have power to refuse registration if proper
arrangements be not made, ab initio, for storage of milk, cleaning
of cans, churns, and prams, etc., by the construction of suitable
yards and offices.
It should not be possible for a milkseller to take a small shop,
to register his premises, and for it then to be found that there is
actually not space in the back yard for proper arrangements to be
made without infringement of the building bye-laws.
Still, the local retailers are, much more than formerly, eager to
comply with suggestions made to them, and as I have said, things
are improving.
For the last five years the model regulations of the Local
Government Board have been in operation, and these bye-laws we
seek to administer with proper stringency.