A FAMILY OF FIFTEEN

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1338, 16 January 1912, Page 4

A FAMILY OF FIFTEEN

AHE SALEYAEDS DANGEROUS TO HEALTH? It was a popular belief at one time that to sleep above a cow-byre was a remedy for mnny ills of the flesh. Be that as it may the experience of a father of a family of fifteen at Pukckohe lias led him to look lightly on the terrors which bacteriologists see in saleyards and the like (says the Auckland "Star"). At the Pukckohe Court on Thursday last the hearing of two informations laid against the Loan and Mercantile Agency Company in respect of the conduct of their yards gave rise to much expert medical evidence on those matters. A state of things injurious to health was alleged, and the iiicdical witnesses for the prosecution described the microbes with ieiirsome names anil worse characters that might possibly flourish under the allegedcircumstances. A witness for the defence, however, had lived right alongside the yard for twenty-five years, and in that time he and his wife had reared an exceedingly healthy family—only fifteen of them —without any unusual illness. "But," said the witness with gentle sarcasm, "if I had known all the doctors have been telling us, of course I shouldn't have gone thoro at all." A dismissal of both informations on points of law was moved for bv Mr. H. P. Kichniond, counsel for the defendant company, but the magistrate (Mr. Fraser) decided, after hearing Mr. Mason (for the Town Board), to reserve judgment; on the whole of the questions of law and fact.