Is this the last opportunity of speaking on this Bill, Sir?
Public Business. - Milk and Dairies Bill, 1934—Fifth Stage.
Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."
Yes, Senator.
There is only one matter to which I should like to refer before the Bill passes. An amendment was proposed during the course of this Bill with the object of protecting honest people who might be prosecuted for having a deficiency of fats or other solids in milk. A typical case has come to my notice recently, to which I should like to draw the attention of the House. It is a case where I consider that a great injustice has been done to the person concerned, and I should like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary to give the House particulars as to the duties of the analyst in such cases. In the case to which I am referring, which occurred quite recently—it actually occurred while this Bill was going through this House—a sample of milk was taken I might say that the person concerned is altogether above reproach. She is a lady of independent means—a philanthropist—and she would be the last person in the world to allow anything in the way of tampering with milk to occur. She spends a great deal of her fortune on supplying milk to the poor, and she has kept a large number of goats—a most troublesome and expensive matter—in order that the poor people in cottages would have an opportunity of having the breed of goats improved. A sample of milk was taken by the food and drugs inspector in this case. The analysis showed, according to the report, that the sample contained 3.50 per cent. of fats, 7.38 per cent. non-fatty solids, and 89.12 per cent of water. In the analyst's report it was alleged that at least 13.2 per cent. of its weight of water had been added to the milk. I should like to know from the Parliamentary Secretary whether it is the duty of the analyst to state definitely what water has been added to the milk. Would it not be sufficient to give the percentages of the solids contained in the milk? This lady has been put to a great deal of annoyance and inconvenience as a result of that report. I should like the Parliamentary Secretary to see that honest people are protected against such things happening, because I think that it is a dreadful thing for an honest person to have it said in a public court that she had added water to milk. That was what was said by the analyst in this particular case. Of course, no water had been added — nothing could be more certain than that—but there you have a case where a philanthropic lady has had her character injured by such a report. Of course, the result will be that hundreds of people will believe that she is an impostor, and is going behind the people's back in that way. That is a definite case of hardship, and I should like to draw the Parliamentary Secretary's attention to it.
I agree with Senator Miss Browne in this matter. I think it is a monstrous thing that such a charge should be made when it is now definitely admitted that milk can be deficient in its butter fats without any water having been added to it. I think that the Parliamentary Secretary should look into this matter with the view of preventing analysts from making a report that water has been added where, in fact, water has not been added. The analysts could give the contents of the milk which they sample without making the definite pronouncement that water had been added. I think that the Parliamentary Secretary should arrange that such reports would be given in a different form.
In order to protect the consumers of milk and the children in the cities, it was necessary to have some such arrangement.
On a point of order, Sir, is this relevant? Does it not come under the Food and Drugs Bill?
I think, Senator, that this discussion might be allowed on the Final Stage of this Bill.
As I was saying, it was necessary to have a certain maximum beyond which the water content of milk should not go. That was absolutely essential because there are more ways of arriving at a high water-content in milk than one. Of course, the well-known way is to go to the pump and put in the water. That is the well-known way. Another way of getting milk of a high water-content, for the purpose of sale, is to keep cows that yield large quantities of watery milk, and it is impossible to catch a man who indulges in that kind of thing, unless some such section as this is put in the Bill. I notice that some Senators are smiling, but I may say that I know something about cows and milk, and even about watering milk— in a professional way. It would be impossible to get a conviction unless the analyst put into his certificate the statement that water had been added. I know something about this legislation, as I appeared for a number of years in some of these cases. I am satisfied it would be impossible to carry the law into effect, or to protect the public unless what I suggest is done.
Unless a false report was made.
May I draw the attention of the Parliamentary Secretary——
You have already spoken, Senator, and I cannot allow you to make another speech.
I suggest that the Parliamentary Secretary should take a note of Senator Comyn's speech and think of some way of dealing with "watery" cows.
The point raised by Senator Miss Browne does not arise under the Bill before the House. It arises under the Food and Drugs Act. The addition of water to milk does not come under this Bill at all. I might say, however, in connection with that point that when the Minister for Agriculture, in consultation with the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, prescribes the percentages of fats, the regulation prescribing such percentages will be laid on the Table of the House. Senators will then have the opportunity of discussing whether the percentage is a safe and proper one or not. The analysis contemplated under this Bill will be very largely for the purpose of detecting bacteriological contamination, a different matter altogether. But there will be, as I have said, a further opportunity of discussing the point that Senator Miss Browne has in mind when the regulations setting out the percentages of fat that milk exposed for sale for human consumption should contain are laid before the House.
Question put and agreed to.