UNCLEAN KITCHEN.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18419, 27 June 1925, Page 3

UNCLEAN KITCHEN.

PROPRIETOR FINED. Before Mr Wyvcrn Wilson, S.M., in tho Magistrate's Court, yesterday, Hugh O'Connor, propriotor of The Grand Tea-rooms, Colombo street, ChristcliurcU (who was defended by Mr S E McCarthy was charged by the City's Chief Sanitary Inspector (Mr Leslie Hardio) with having failed to ensure that the floor of tlio kitchen was effectively cleansed, and with having failod to provide for remova' within 24 hours, of all garbage and refuse matter. O'Connor denied both charges. After hearing the evidonce, his Worship convictod and fined the proprietor 40s and costs on the first charge. The seoond charge was dismissed for want of jurisdiction, as the information laid by the inspect, r had not beon signed by a Justice of the Peace.

"As a result of complaints received about The Grand Tea-rooms," said the inspector, "I visited (ho premises on June 4th at about 11 o'clock. The kitchen floor was ia a greasy, filthy state, and to my mind it bad not been washed in 24 hours. I went through the kitchen into a room at the back which ia divided from the kitchen by a partition. It seemed to be more of a store room, and I found sis refuse tins there. Some of the tins were petrol tins. Four of them had been emptied, but they wore in.a filthy condition, and two had not been emptied. Apparently they had not been emptied for some days, because the refuse had become solid." Cross-examined by counsel for defendant, the inspector said ho had visited the place between 15 and 20 times within the past few months. If tho kitchen floor had been washed out, it was not done thoroughly. "Whenever I have visited the premisos they have always been in a dirty state," said Herbert Howarth, Assistant Sanitary Inspector, who also gave evidence. "The floor of the kitchen has not been effectively clean whenever I have seen it —there are usually .splashos of grease and flour about it. It was always grubby, but there was evidenco of the flopr having beon cloansed." "Each time you'vo visited tho tea-rooms it's been about 11 o'clock, hasn't it?" askod Mr ( McCarthy—"Yes, but other places are all cleaned up by that time." ■ Evidence was given for the defence by Matilda Barrett, chef at the tea-rooms, who said she thoroughly scrubbed out the kitchen each day after lunch. She used plenty of hot water, etc., and the operation usually took her about two hours.

His Worship: What! Two hours each day?— Well, it's a big kitchen, sir. The ex-chef at the tea-rooms. Pearl Battersby, said: "It would take ono person an hour to scrub out the kitchen, but it would only take two about half an hour. The place was quite satisfactory, and clean enough for anyone," she concluded. A young' waitress named Edna Amos, who was employod by O'Connor, said the kitchen was always clean, and she had seen it being scrubbed out.

Counsel for defendant submitted that it was for the eating-house-keeper, and not for the inspector, to say the time the kitchen was to bo cleaned out. So long as it was scrubbed within 24 hours the regulation was complied with, and the proprietor's duty done He contended that it had boen proved that the floor had been scrubbed each day. His Worship, in summing up, said he had tho evidence of two inspectors that the tearooms were dirty. The Chief Inspector had said the floor was dirty with grease, and in his opinion it could not have been cleaned within 24 hours. Against that thero was the evidence of two cooks, who said it was cleaned every day. But one said it took two hours to clean, whilo the other said it only took one hour. If a room, the size ho was told the kitchen was—lßft by 20ft—had been thoroughly cleansed it would have been spotloss in parts at the end of 24 hours. "I think," continued his Worship, that it had some sort of a swish over, but I don't think the floor had been effectively cleansed each dav. In the interests of public health, ft is the* duty of every proprietor to kenp the floor of his kitcflen clean. Probably tho fine I. am going to impose will not have so great an effect as will the publication of the fact that the eating-house is dirty."