SWEEPING AND CLEANSING OPERATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12867, 27 July 1907, Page 9

SWEEPING AND CLEANSING OPERATIONS.

At the city abattoir yesterday,* d-ur-ing our representative's visit, cleansing operations on a considerable scale were seen to be in progress. That portion of the slaughtering apartment where the carcases sre bung to cool, was receiving a rigorous hosisig down, while in other parts the sound of broome busily plied, was to be heard. No alteration in the mode of getting rid of the blood adjacent to the cattle pithing pens, however, was observable Outsida, in spite of the drenching rain, cleaning up was also being prosecuted with a firm band. The pig pens were being hosed, while anotlior man was hard at work sweeping down the gutteia adjacent to the sheep and cattle pens, and shovelling the filth into a barrow, the material being tipped out into a gravel pit near by. Thanks to the heavy downpour, the concreted pons wore much oloaiier than has been tho case oil the week,.and, moreover, where too much solid matter was.not present, the gutters wore running lively. The filth mentioned yesteruay as having overflowed on to the open yard between the cattle and sheep pens had been scraped up, and things generally were in a much more presentable state. And all this, as has been observed, in spite of the soaking rain. The futility of attempting to do anything to the unpaved pens was evident, and tho stuff had merely to be suffered to escape as it would, out on to the yaid. The plight of the sheep and cattle awaiting slaughter (although this cannot be attributed to mismanagement of tho abattoir authorities) cooped up, and standing out in the open pens exposed to the full fury of yesterday's pitiless rain squalls was indeed saddening to contemplate. As one of the I men working about the place remarked : "The pigs are best off here." As indeed thoy were. By comparison they are treated like gentlemen—gentlemen that is, in somewhat reduced circumstances, but still like gentlemen. They are housed in roomy pens with sloping concrete, floors, each one of whicn is housed over at the rear. The fact that the querulous creatures had no bedding of any risible kind was noticeable, and tbe discomfort of haring to sleep on a bare concrete floor during tiie present rigorous weather, may well be imagined. However, thoy hare a sheltering roof orer their heads, thus being able to keep moderately dry, and that is more than their companions in misfortune (the sheep and cattle) sre blessed with.