BUTCHERS RAID ABATTOIRS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3703, 13 October 1927, Page 2

BUTCHERS RAID ABATTOIRS.

DIRECT ACTION AT BLENHEIM. Blenheim, Yesterday. As a sequel to the dispute between the local master butchers and the Borough Council in regard to the ownership of sheep runners ta»ken from the animals killed in the municipal abattoirs, which recently was the subject of a Supreme Court action in Wellington, in which the verdict went to the Council, it is stated that a party of butchers yesterday raided the abattoirs, and despite warnings by the manager, removed the runners. As the upshot of this event information has been laid against J. J. O’Halloran charging him with the alleged theft of the runners. O’Halloran is a local butcher and also a member of the Borough Council and of the Abattoirs Committee. It is understood the question of prosecuting the other butchers concerned in the incident will depend on the result of the action against O’Halloran. The man employed by the butchers to remove the runners from the abattoirs is being charged with trespass. CHARGE WITHDRAWN. Blenheim, Last Night. At the Magistrate’s Court this afternoon, Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., heard a charge of theft of sheep-, runners preferred against John Joseph O’Halloran. At the conclusion of the evidence Mr A. C. Nathan, who appeared for the informant, adopted a suggestion from His Worship and withdrew the information on the butchers giving an assurance that there would be no repetition of the offence, and on defendant agreeing to pay the costs and to return the runners. '

Ifhe same course was adopted in regard to charges of trespass preferred against Thos. Tracey, who was acting under the butchers instructions in seizing runners.

His Worship warned the butchers that if’ there were any repetitions of the offence he would have no hesitation in entering a conviction for theft.-