ABATTOIR FEES.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20828, 11 April 1933, Page 10

ABATTOIR FEES.

CITY COUNCIL'S REFUND TO BUTCHERS. VALIDATION REQUIRED FIRST. Although the Minister for Agri- I culture (the Hon. C. E. Macmillan) t has recommended that the Christchurch City Council should allow butchers the refund of abattoir fees to which they were entitled and j seek validation afterwards, the coun- | cil, decided at its meeting last night that it would be unwise to make any payments until the validating legislation was passed. The Abattoir Committee reported having been advised by the Mayor (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.) that the local bill authorising a refund of abattoir fees had been thrown out on the third reading through the activity of several local members at the instance of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, which desired a share of the amount which the bill empowered the council to pay to the master butchers. Subsequently a deputation, representing the butchers had waited on the Minister for Agriculture and had asked him to facilitate the passage of the bill. As the Mayor was unwilling to allow further refunds or concessions to the Refrigerating Company, it had been impossible to arrive at an understanding, and the Minister had then suggested that the council should make the refunds and seek validation for its action afterwards. It had ultimately been agreed that the council should draft a clause on the lines suggested and forward it to the Minister for examination. The Finance Committee, however, considered that it would be unwise for the council to make any payments until the validating clause had been passed, and this opinion was endorsed by the Abattoir Com--1 mittee.

The position was, therefore, ended the report, that the City Solicitor, in consultation with the Mayor, would prepare a clause for submission to the Minister, but that no refund would be made until after the clause had been adopted by the House. The report was adopted.