The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1903. THE CHRISTCHURCH ABATTOIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 178, 28 July 1903, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1903. THE CHRISTCHURCH ABATTOIRS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the -Suture in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

One of the first results of the new regulations as to slaughtering in our cities is now before the public of Christchurch. We are informed that the municipal abattoirs at Soekburn, some five miles from the city, are now ready for use, and will be. opened shortly. So far about £20,000 has been expended on this establishment, but perhaps £8000 more will be required to complete the work, with a cool storage chamber, to be erected either at Soekburn or Christehureh. The "original estimate for the abattoirs alone was £15.000, so that, before the work is finished.the sum orisrinally proposed will have been exceeded by about £12.000. This can hardly be satisfactory to -the ratepayers, but it is a far more serious matter to theni that the whole of the local butchers are up in arms against the new system, and insist that if they are compelled to use the new abattoirs they will have to raise the price of meat. A very heated discussion has gone on about this matter for some time past in Christchurch, and the experience of our Southern friends may be of some use to us when we have to deal with the same difficulty in a practical way.

It has been decided by Parliament that public abattoirs must be erected by the municipal authorities at Auckland, Wellington, Christehureh, Dunedin and Tnvereargill. Other local bodies may allow* slaughtering to be done by a meat export company or otherwise, under Government inspection. Even Timaru may compromise in this way; but in the towns named all the local authorities within an eight-mile radius are debarred from this alternative. It is not easy to see why a distinction must be made, for example, between Invercargill and Napier, or Timaru and Wanganui; for, after all, the only safeguard for the public health is the formal inspection of the meat by a qualified expert, and this can be done quite as well at the local freezing works as at a municipal abattoir. However, the law stands thus, and we are chiclly interested to observe its effects in the object lesson that Christen ure'i now affords us.

Hitherto practically all the slaughtering for Christehureh and suburbs has been done under proper inspection at the Belfast and Islington Freezing Works. Both these companies possess exceptional facilities for the utilisation of the offal and by-products, and botli of them have been able, by employing the most modern scientiiic methods, to work for the butchers at exceedingly economical rates. The municipal abattoirs do not intend to trouble about by-products, but will dispose of the refuse by contract. The butchers will lose considerably on the value of the offal—-oleo fat, for example, falls 40 per cent, in value when stale—and at the same time they will have to pay a far higher rate for slaughtering than that charged by the meat companies. At present the companies' charge for slaughtering sheep is 2UL, whereas the corporation proposes to charge Od., including Id. for inspection. Of course this means that the public will ultimately have to pay more for their meat. Again, the freezing works have been in the habit of selling at low rates large quantities of meat too heavy for the English trade. Now this may not be sold in the city, because it has not been slaughtered at'the public abattoirs, and the people of Christehureh .will thus lose an important supply of cheap meat. From every point of view the outlook for the trade and the public seems to have altered for the worse with the advent of the municipal abattoir.

However, another more serious difficulty has arisen.in connection with the Soekburn abattoirs. A large number of Christehureh butchers applied for leave to continue slaughtering at the Belfast and Islington works on condition that they paid the corporation fee. The Council decided to refuse this oiler, believing naturally enough that the end of it would be that the Soekburn establishment would be left idle. The Council has made no provision for carting, which has hitherto been done by the slaughtermen, and most of the butchers have not enough carts to do it themselves. One of the leading butchers in the city stated that he would willingly pay £100 on top of the corporation's fees to avoid the trouble and confusion that must ensue. The butchers have therefore decided to hold out, if they can, against the new regulation. Moreover, they have obtained legal advice, which makes it very doubtful if the Council can compel the butchers to slaughter at the abattoirs so long as they pay a fee sufficient to provide interest on the cost of these extravagant buildings. It will be interesting to observe how* the trouble will end, but the story of-the Sockburn abattoirs may provide food for reflection to those interested in our own municipal slaughterhouse problem, which seems yet some way from solution. I