THE MUNICIPAL ABATTOIR.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12866, 26 July 1907, Page 6

THE MUNICIPAL ABATTOIR.

The Government, it will be seen, have lost no time in directing Mr Gilruth, the chief veterinarian of the Agricultural Department, to inspect and report upon the condition and working of the Christchurch Municipal Abattoir. At first sight this might seem to bo putting Mr Gilruth in a somewhat awkward position, ina-smuch as we believe the plans of the abattoir were submitted for hie approval and passed by him, and the manager in charge is an officer of his department. We have not the slightest doubt, however, that Mr Gilruth will go into the question with strict impartiality, and his well-known anxiety to keep both the local and export meat trade of this colony abovo suspicion is sufficient guarantee that he will leave no stone unturned to secure any reforms that he may find needed in thia particular department. For our part we are satisfied that any structural alterations that are required are mainly matters of detail, and that what has really been at fault is the system of maintenance and control. The letter from the Butchers' Association which we publish in another column shoves that the attention of the Abattoirs Committee has been repeatedly called, both by the manager of the works and the butchers themselves, to improvements that were required, but that the committee, after the fashion of euch bodies, paid very little attention to those representations. Evidently the divided eystem of control has been to blame for most of the shortcomings. We have the manager avowedly in rhargo of the works, and he iias two masters in

the shape of the Government and the City Council. Obviously'it ie impoesiblo for him to keep the arrangements at the abattoir as they ought to be

kept, and as it is evident he desiree to keep them, unless be receives proper support from the Abattoirs Committee in the matter of carrying out his recommendations. On tne other hand, it is equally necessary that he should have absolute control over the men employed about the abattoir, but inasmuch as the Corporation have the killing dono by contract the men naturally look to their employers for instructions, and the evils inseparable from divideu authority at once arise. Thus it is that we fina incidents occurring such as that narrated by the Inspector to the Society for Uie Prevention of Cruelty to AnimaLs, who telie us that he has known men employed by two different contractors working side by side in the pens, and quarrelling as to who should clear up the filth on the boundary line. We congratulate the Government on the promptitude with ivmch. they aro taking bteps to enquire into the unfortunate state of affairs which has arisen, and trust that tne result of Mr Gi!nith's investigations will be to remove all cause of complaint, and make the Christchurch Abattoir what it ought to be—the model municipal abattoir of New Zealand.