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milk which for commercial reasons must be heat-treated to prevent souring will in future require to be either pasteurised or sterilised. The class of consumers who would be protected if compulsory pasteurisation were permitted in large towns would consequently he small, being confined to those who in such towns buy raw milk which would at present be ungraded. But if the granting to local authorities of powers to require pasteurisation immediately seriously delayed the progress of eradication this protection would be secured at the expense of consumers in rural areas. We believe that on balance more lives would be saved if a reasonable delay were insisted upon than if the immediate introduction of compulsory pasteurisation were permitted to local authorities.
171. It is clear from the argument of the preceding paragraphs that the majority of our other recommendations are made on the hypothesis that a policy of eradicating tuberculosis from the dairy herds of this country is pursued vigorously.
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PART 3.
RECOMMENDATIONS.
VIII. ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES RECOMMENDED.
(a) Veterinary inspection.
172. Routine veterinary inspection of dairy cattle should be made obligatory for all local authorities. If the veterinary service is to be developed a number of questions arise for decision. In the first place is the service to be carried out by the state or by local authorities? At present veterinary surgeons are extensively employed both by local authorities and by the Ministry of Agri- culture. It is natural to suggest that the time when a considerable extension is being made in this service is propitious for re-examination of the division of functions between central and local authorities.
a
178. The need for a high standard of administration and of uniformity of administration is universally admitted. It is argued, on the one side, that this standard may best be achieved and maintained by the establishment of a national veterinary service. Under such a national scheme the veterinary officers now employed by local authorities would be transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, which would be solely responsible for veterinary inspection. It is claimed that, in this way, national uniformity of administrative practice would be secured, that the activities of existing administrative authorities could be effectively co-ordinated, and that administrative regions or districts could be constituted to meet the special needs of veterinary control. On the other side it is argued that the best method of procedure is to strengthen control by local authorities.
174. Those who favour an expansion of the existing local service also emphasise the importance of maintaining a high minimum standard of administrative practice throughout the country. They support their view by arguments that are partly general and partly specific. They point out that while the absence of any form of state co-operation or control may, and usually does, result in a multiplicity of standards of service it is precisely this type of administration that has revealed possibilities of advance and thereby gradually influenced public opinion and raised the general minimum standard for the country as a whole. Local administration enlarges the scope for initiative and experiment; it enlists active voluntary co-operation and provides greater opportunity for leadership on the part of the more progressive local authorities. Many of the existing public services have reached their present level of efficiency through such initiative and leadership. Central administration, on the other hand, is apt to be more impersonal in the case of services in which the personal element is valuable. In the modern state it is one of
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