MILK LEGISLATION IN THE COLONIES 479 



vigour and thoroughness of inspection and control is said to be the 

 chief cause in bringing about, for example, the decrease in the 

 percentage of tuberculosis. As far back as 1883 Victoria appointed 

 a Board of Experts to advise the Government as to the right steps 

 for stamping out tuberculosis. In 1890 regulations were made for 

 the inspection of dairy farms, milk stores, grazing grounds, cattle, 

 and premises ; also for registration, cleansing, and disinfection, and 

 for carrying out the requisite precautions for the protection of milk 

 from infection or contamination.^ In South Australia, Victoria, 

 and New Zealand, no person may keep or use any cow for the 

 purpose of obtaining milk therefrom, either for use or sale, which 

 is affected with tuberculosis.- In Queensland the only enactment 

 bearing on the subject is Part iii. of the Health Act Amendment 

 Act, 1886. Registration and inspection are carried out, and at the 

 year ending June 1903, as many as 2440 dairies, 28 butter and cheese 

 factories, and 24 creameries were registered, and 25,000 milch cows 

 were inspected annually. A Dairy Act is badly needed.^ No 

 preservatives whatever may be added to milk in these colonies. 

 In Tasmania and New Zealand the law* which has been in opera- 

 tion since 1894 is more advanced than any milk legislation we have 

 in Great Britain. 



A dairyman or milk vendor in New South Wales is required by 

 the Act to report immediately any case of the following diseases 

 which may occur on his dairy premises in any animal (that is in 

 any animal whatever, and not in milch cows alone) : — 



Apthae, cancer, pleuro-pneumonia, anthrax, tuberculosis, actino- 

 mycosis, and inflammation, eruptions, or warts on the udder. 



^ Public Health Act (Victoria), 1889, Sees. 19, 22, etc. 

 - Stock Diseases Act, 1893. 



^ Report of Commissioner of Public Healthy Queensland, 1903? p 10. 

 * Bye-laws of Hobart, 1893, ^"d the Dairy Industry Act (New Zealand), 1894. 

 See Roy. Com. Rep. on Tuberculosis, 1898, Appendix, pp. 424-427. 



