CITY'S MEAT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19150, 5 November 1927, Page 21

CITY'S MEAT.

LOAN FOR ABATTOIR.

KEEN DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT.

[THE PEESS SpeclU Service.] WELLINGTON, November 4. When the Slaughtering and Inspection Amendment Bill was introd-ced in the House of Representatives List evening the Minister for Agriculture (Mr Hawkcn) explained tha,t the Bill had particular reference to Christchureh where the ratepayers had refused to allow the work of extending the abat-

toirs to be proceeded with and it was necessary in the interests of public

health that it should be done. The Bill was introduced for the purpose of enabling local authorities to raise loans for the reconstruction of abattoirs without taking a poll of the ratepayers and to provide for the payment of fees on meat slaughtered in one abattoir district and sold in another.

Mr D. G. Sullivan (Avon) said that possibly the ratepayers had not understood the position when they rejected the loan proposals subsequent to the Health Department's demand for extensions and reconstructions.

Mr D. Jones (Ellesmere) suggested that the Bill be referred to a committee. The Christchureh City Council should consider the question of abolishing the abattoirs and having all its stock slaughtered at a lower cost by the freezing companies. There was no provision for cool storage at the abattoirs and losses sometimes resulted through difficulty in keeping the meat. Mr Sullivan pointed out that the Bill made full provision for these needs. It was absolutely necessary that the abattoirs should be extended.

Mr Jones: I think I could agree that it is. necessary for the abattoirs to be reconditioned, but the whole question of whether Christchureh could not be served much better by the freezing works near it should oe considered. One of the worst features in city life is that at the abattoirs meat is killed on one day and eaten on the next, but in freezing works it can be hung for several days.

Mr Sullivan: You are pleading for the freezing companies.

Mr Jones denied that he held any brief for the freezing works, and said that he was merely expressing a friendly opinion as a public man. He thought that the Bill should be held over till next session, for the fullest consideration.

Mr H. T. Armstrong (Christchureh East) said the cost of improvements ,to the abattoirs was not a charge on the ratepayers. The butchers paid and passed the cost on to the consumers. The ratepayers at present were able to vote out a * loan which concerned a large, section of consumers who were not ratepayers at all. He sincerely hoped the city would never be left to the mercy of private companies. He did not agree that Christchureh would be better served by the freezing companies. He had heard butchers say that the reason that they transferred their business from the City abattoirs to freezing companies was that they could got stuff passed at the freezing works that wquld be condemned at the abattoirs.

, Mr H. G. Dickie (Patea) i refuted the suggestion that inspection 'of meat at freezing works was not as good as at abattoirs.

Mr Armstrong said there was room for improvement at both places. The, Minister expressed his intention of sending the Bill to the Agricultural and Stock Committee. The Christchureh question was not the only one involved, he said, because other Jibattoirs were concerned. As time went on there would be more. If the law did not provide a means whereby these establishments could bo increased in size difficulties would arise. This question could be threshed out by the committee when .the Bill was before it. Abattoirs were established, and to suggest scrapping them would be to undertake a big consideration. This question should remain with the ■ cities themselves.

Mr Hawken refuted the suggestion of Mr Armstrong that inspection at abattoirs and freezing works alike was not as it should be. This statement would be damaging to New Zealand's reputation as an exporting country. The meat going out of this country was as good as that from any other part of the world, and no meat unfit for human consumption was allowed to bo consumed within the Dominion or exported. He did not say that farm meat was inspected, but that killed at abattoirs and freezing works was quite fit for consumption. The inspection system was unequalled in. the world.

The Bill was read a second time and referred to the Agricultural and Stock Committee.