H.—29a

Inspection Samples of milk are from time to time taken from vendors, from producer-vendors, and from roundsmen. They also are taken from the shop dairies. At one time these were taken by an Inspector under the control of the Health Department. As the one Inspector was unable to carry out the necessary amount of work the City Council offered the assistance of ail Inspector employed by itself. This assistance was welcomed, and a car was provided to enable the Inspector to do more effective work. Then the Health Department's Inspector was withdrawn. Subsequently the car ceased to be available for the Council's Inspector. Now this officer is the-only one employed. He appears to do all that can be expected of him, but assistance is necessary if control is to be reasonably effective. Between 16th September, 1942, and 22nd April, 1943, the Inspector took 1,480 samples, some from vendors in the city and some from milk-shops. Seventy of these samples, or approximately 5 per cent., failed to comply with the provisions of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. No returns were available to us to show how the defective samples were distributed as between milk shops, restaurants, vendors, roundsmen, &c. CHAPTER S.—PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SUPPLY OF MILK TO THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF DUNEDIN The Metropolitan Area of Dunedin comprises the City of Dunedin, the Boroughs of West Harbour, St. Kilda, and Green Island, and some adjacent districts forming parts of counties. The Borough of Port Chalmers is classed as part of the urban area in the Year-fiook return but does not form part of the metropolitan area for the purposes of this inquiry. A considerable portion of the most thickly populated parts of the area is flat and conveniently situated for an efficient milk-supply service, but there are other portions that are hilly and where the approaches are steep. Demand Population The Year-Book for 1942 estimates the population of the urban area on Ist April, 1941, at 82,200. Excluding Port Chalmers, the metropolitan population on that date was 80,180. The movement of the population in the urban area, including Port Chalmers, is shown in the following figures, also drawn from the Year-Book : — 1911 .. .. .. 67,200 1926 .. .. .. 85,095 1916 .. .. .. 68,716 1936 .. .. .. 81,848 1921 .. .. .. 72,255 .1941 .. .. .. 82,200 It will be seen that the population grew at an increasing rate during the fifteen-year period from 1911 to 1926, that it fell during the ten-year period from 1926-1936, and that there was a small increase in the five-year period from 1936-1941. The increase during the fifteen-year period was 17,895, the following ten years there was a decrease of 3,247, and in the last five years there was an increase of 352. To draw accurate as well as reliable conclusions from those figures it would be necessary to consider changes in adjoining areas in close proximity to the city. Growth may take place outside an urban area, in districts which at a later date are linked to it. The indications are, however, that after a period of expansion the population has become fairly stable, and a continuance of that condition appears to be a reasonable anticipation. Consumption According to returns furnished to the Commission the total sales of milk and cream by the vendors of pasteurized milk, the vendors of raw milk, and the producer-vendors for all purposes during the year ended 31st March, 1943, amounted to 2,456,738 gallons of milk and 56,977 gallons of cream. Assuming that 10 gallons of milk is required to produce 1 gallon of cream, the total gallonage of milk consumed was 3,026,508, or a daily average of 8,292 gallons. This amount included both wholesale and retail quantities and supplies to schools, to the Armed Forces, and to ice-cream manufacturers. Additional quantities are purchased by a chocolate-manufacturing company. Some 10,800 children are supplied with half a pint of milk per school day, and of these, 1,390 attend schools outside the metropolitan area. The demand for the Armed Forces is small and probably much smaller than is the reduction in the civilian demand consequent upon the withdrawal of men from civilian life. Prospective Consumption. In view of the relatively small consumption by the Armed Forces an increase rather than a reduction in demand is likely when peace is restored. As the population is stable, the increase for a time is likely to be limited to that consequent upon repatriation. But regard must also be had to the insistence by the health authorities upon the importance of increasing the per capita consumption. Organization As in the other areas, the industry is conducted by three groups —namely, producers, vendors, and producer-vendors. The vendors again are divided into the three companies that process and distribute pasteurized milk and the vendors that sell raw milk. All the milk sold by the producervendors is raw. Of the annual milk sales quoted above 1,229,061 gallons are sold by the three companies, 529,980 gallons are sold by twenty-eight raw-milk vendors, and 697,697 gallons are sold by forty-five producer-vendors. 42,547 gallons of cream are sold by the companies, 7,410 gallons by raw-milk vendors, and 7,020 gallons by producer-vendors. Until recently the dairy-farmers were quite unorganized, but in 1942 the Dairy Farmers' Co-operative Milk Supply Co., Ltd., was incorporated and it commenced operations in June of that year. A large proportion of the farmers supplying the companies are now members of the Dairy Farmers' Co-operative Milk Supply Co., Ltd., but very few of those supplying milk to the raw-milk vendors had joined when the Commission heard evidence in Dunedin. During the first nine months of operations the newly incorporated supply company sold 854,602 gallons of milk and becamc the chief supplier of milk to two of the companies and also supplied three of the raw-milk vendors. When it started operating it sold 46,000 gallons per month, but by May of this year had increased its sales to 125,000 gallons per month. It is anticipated that in future almost all the milk supplied to the proprietary companies will be purchased from this organization.

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