Public Abattoirs.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 6, 7 July 1897, Page 2

Public Abattoirs.

Now that the Selwyn County Council has declared in favour of the erection of public abattoirs, we may hope that tbe matter will be seriously considered by the other local bodies iv this part of the colony. We have again and again draws attention to the danger of allowing private slaughtermen to prepare meat for human consumption ; but their customers seem to have comforted themselves with the belief that the present system of inspection was sufficient to prevent any disastrous results. Nothing could be more illusory. The inspector employed by the County Council ia a thoroughly conscientious and capable officer, with a very proper conception of the importance of his duties ; but even by working early and late he can see only a small proportion of the meat that passeßinto tbe butchers' shop*. Tbe slaughterhouses are distributed over a wide area of the country, and it would take at least a dozen competent men to maintain an effective system of inspection. The most that one man can do is to insist upon tbe premises being kept in a fairly sanitary condition, and to make an occasional examination of the meat intended for sale. This is, of course, better than nothing ; indeed the present inspector has prevented a large quantity of diseased meat going into consumption ; bnt a visit to the Addingtou Saleyards would convince any practical observer that it is absolutely impossible to check the sale of animals that are altogether unfit for human food. Only recently there were four or five beasts in the cattle pens that should bave been de* stroyed weeks ago, and probably two of three of them made tbeir appearance in the butchers' shops. What is wanted is an establishment whero every pound of meat intended for human consumption -0Q would be carefully examined. Tbe Dunedin people are now proceeding witb the erection of publio abattoirs, and although the plans they bave adopted are not by any means up to date, they will soon be a position of comparative safety. It is to be hoped tbat the Christchurch people will not hesitate any longer to take similar steps for the protection of the public health, and that we shall soon be able to congratulate them upon tbe institution of a thoroughly satisfactory system of scientific inspection. — LytteW ton Times.