228 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



him. Recently he was speaking to a farmer who twenty 

 years ago derided the idea of scientific knowledge for 

 farming. Some of them, however, persuaded him to take 

 up the scientific side of the question, and the testimony of 

 that farmer to-day was that such knowledge had been a 

 benefit to him all along the line, and that the man who 

 wanted to do farming in a paying way must have scientific 

 knowledge. There was nothing that would so well repay 

 any labour spent upon it as the land, if only the labour were 

 spent in a proper manner. His (the speaker's) point was 

 that local authorities had the power to place scientific 

 knowledge within the reach of all the farmers in their 

 various districts, and if they did their duty, then there would 

 be no blame attaching to the local authorities. His next 

 point was that they should make the farmer directly respon- 

 sible for the quality of his milk. .He was one of those who 

 believed in one responsibility. The farmer was the respon- 

 sible man, and if he (Mr. Lambie) were a dairyman distri- 

 buting milk then he would get a guarantee from the farmer. 

 They got- guarantees in regard to other forms of food that 

 it was pure, and if he (the speaker) was a scientific farmer 

 and knew his business he would have no difficulty in giving a 

 guarantee that his milk was pure, and if any dairyman did 

 not get that guarantee, make him responsible for distri- 

 buting the milk if it were adulterated. He held that the 

 local authority where the farms were situated, and where 

 the milk was actually produced, was the only authority that 

 could properly deal with this matter. He would go a stage 

 further, and would say that if a local authority had got 

 impure milk or poor milk in its locality, they ought to 

 prosecute the local authority from whose district it came. 

 One of the speakers had spoken about getting a milk supply, 

 in the same way as the people were now supplied with water; 

 but we were a long way from that state of things yet. That 

 time might come, but as local authorities their duty was to 

 exercise the powers which they now possessed. They were 

 faced with the responsibility. As local authorities elected to 

 do the best for the people whom they represented, they had 

 taken upon themselves that responsibility, and if they did 

 not exercise those powers to the best of their ability then 

 they were not doing what they had taken upon themselves 

 to do. If that were done all over the country he had no 

 doubt about the quality of the milk supply. The standard 

 suggested by Dr. Norris was none too high. His (the 

 speaker's) scientific farmer friend said that if they took the 

 milk as it was produced they would have no difficulty in 

 such a standard. They wanted to place the responsibility 



