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for next winter's supply amounting to 9,000 gallons per day only. To make contracts that would bind an organization or organizations of supply to have the estimated quantities with a surplus of, say, 10 per cent., available at all times is surely reasonable. With such contracts the supply organization or organizations could organize its or their resources and make its or their plans in such a way as to protect producer members and give reasonable stability to the industry and assurance to the consumers. Any treating and vending body that proceeded on these lines would be entitled to protection in respect of violent fluctuations occasioned by the prosecution of public policy, such as the movement of Armed Forces, and there seems no reason why that protection should not be afforded. In Parts II and 111 of this report the Commission has made recommendations that it hopes, if adopted, will assist in overcoming the difficulties and ensuring adequate supplies of milk of high standard at reasonable prices. These difficulties must be overcome or the risk of more severe shortage and more extensive reliance upon unsatisfactory supplies must sooner or later be the outcome. Supply Natural Conditions The source of supply for the metropolitan area is unique. It is divisible into several supply areas. First, there is the area within two miles of the city's boundary. This is occupied by the farms of producervendor whose function and right is recognized by the Wellington City Milk Supply Act, 1919, and its amendments. This area is very broken and the soil is mostly of poor quality. It has the advantage of immediate proximity to the area of distribution, and this advantage is of importance to the small man who both produces and vends his own milk and is able to eliminate most of the cost incident to collection from a distance. This area produced something in the vicinity of 900,000 gallons of milk last year, or a daily average approaching 2,500 gallons. The next area is that outside the 2-mile area but within a radius of 30 miles of the city and comprises mainly the land in the Hutt Valley and adjacent valleys, the slopes surrounding these valleys and those adjoining the 2-mile area, and land extending up the west coast as far as Paraparaumu. The milk drawn from this area for the City of Wellington and its immediate environs is drawn through the Wellington l)airy Farmers' Co-operative Milk Supply Association, Ltd., while that supplied to the Hutt Valley and associated district is drawn from the same association and from producer-vendors. Though the land in this area cannot be classed as high-class dairying country it includes pockets of good land and produced during the year ending 31st March, 1943, some 1,851,313 gallons, or an average of 5,072 gallons per day. The third area extends up the west coast as far north as Levin, which is 59 miles distant from Wellington, and includes, in addition to Levin, the districts of Paekakariki, Paraparaumu,. Waikanae, Te Horo, Manakau, Ohau, and Otaki. The portion of this area that lies nearest to Wellington is hilly and generally of poor quality. As the area extends farther north it includes increasing quantities of flat land of good quality. Outside these normal areas of supply are other territories stretching to Bunnythorpe on the one hand and Pahiatua on the other, from which the metropolitan area has drawn emergency supplies. Cows Within the three areas described there were, when the 1940-41 statistics were compiled, 47,534 cows. But the number of dairies registered within the territory for town milk-supply in the five years from 1939 to 1943 inclusive, which includes the farm dairies from which the Hutt Valley supply is drawn, is given by the Department of Agriculture as follows Year. Registered Dairies. Number of Cows milked. 1939 .. .. .. ..459 16,956 1940 .. .. .. ..494 17,312 1941 .. .. .. ..500 18,445 1942 .. .. .. ..509 19,554 1943 502 19,086 A comment on the return conveys the information that not all the registered dairies supply milk to the Wellington City Council, but that fully 75 per cent, of the total are constant suppliers to the city. During the year ended 31st March, 1943, 13,922 gallons of milk were purchased from Shannon, and during the present winter season considerable quantities have been drawn from suppliers holding temporary licenses only. These licensees were scattered over a wide area. There were twenty-six at Levin, fifteen at Shannon, five at Tokomaru, seven at Linton, forty-eight at Bunnythorpe, and, as commented in the official return made to the Commission, in addition to these, Glaxo Laboratories have been receiving for transport to Wellington a considerable quantity of milk from unregistered suppliers. It is not possible in the case of Wellington to show the monthly variations in the total supplies to the whole metropolitan area as, with the assistance of the returns kept by the Metropolitan Milk Council, it was possible in the case of Auckland. A reliable guide to the position may be obtained from the fact that in 1942, while in the summer supplies from the 30-milc area were sufficient, in the winter months of May, June, and July the Milk Department obtained from the 30-mile area a daily average of 3,278 gallons and from outside that area a daily average of 7,073 gallons per day. A further indication of the trend may be found in the very large quantities of milk that since 31st March last have been obtained from factories outside the three areas of supply. Balancing-station A third feature of the organization has been the control and operation by the City Council of a factory at Rahui as a balancing station. This is owned and operated in accordance with an agreement made between the City Council and the Rahui Suppliers Society, Incorporated. Agreements pursuant to this agreement arc made with the individual suppliers. Under this agreement the Council augments its supplies and uses any excess for manufacturing purposes. Seasonal or Level Supply It is questionable whether an attempt to maintain an all-the-year-round level supply in any of the supply areas would at present be successful, or, if successful, would be economical. As already indicated, the greater part of the land in the 30-mile area is not of high fertility and winter feed is expensive. Much of the land running northward from the 30-mile limit up to Levin and Shannon is of

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