A BUTCHERS' GRIEVANCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 757, 4 March 1910, Page 8

A BUTCHERS' GRIEVANCE.

<■■•■' ■ THE NEW ABATTOIRS.-• ■ -'■-■■ A grievance which is said to be common to the ten Wellington butchers who have..their.meat'slaughtered at the new municipal abattoirs was-demonstrated by. Mri W. Wollahd;'bne'*of theiri'number, to a Dominion representative yesterday. The complaint is that the fine concrete floor at the abattoirs is much too slippery for stock, and that the cattle pens are twice as large as they should be. The result is said to be that every week bullocks slip and bruise themselves on the concreto'.floor, and the butchers are out of pocket: in: consequence. Mr. Wolland showed the carcass of a bullock with a great bruise on the inside of one of the hind legs. The flesh behind the bruise had been torn' and damaged, and only the forequarters of the animal were good for sale:- The explanation "given by Mr. Wolland was that the animal had evidently been-chased at the abattoirs by another bullock, and had slipped on the fine floor and been, badly injured. It was plain that the bniiso 1 was: qnite recent, and the fact of its being on the inside of the leg precluded the suggestion that the injury had been met with in' a railway truck. Mr. Wolland stated that the bullock cost.him £8, in addition to which he had to pay 3s. sd. for killing, 6s. for hanging, Is. for-droving, ; and 3s. for cartage, and all he could use of it was the forequarters. The floor to which ho attributed the mischief was, he said, like glass, and it was madness to, put it down. The City Engineer, he ■■stated, had been told beforehand that a; mistake was being made in putting down the floor, and had. replied that if the floor-was found to bo unsatisfactqrv- it could be altered. Mr. Wolland stated that similar injuries to stock slaughtered at the abattoirs were of weekly occurrence; though no such losses were experienced in the case of cattle slaughtered privately, at less expense.

At a meeting of dairy farmers at Kaiparoro. on Tuesday evening it was decided to establish a.'co-operative cheese .factory- in the. district;. Provisional. directors were elected," and other necessary formalities gone" through. Between 600 and 700: cows have already been guaranteed; ' ..■."•