ABATTOIRS FOR THE CITY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1906, Page 4

ABATTOIRS FOR THE CITY.

In the last of our articles dealing with the question of meat inspection as it affocts the city of Wellington, we endeavoured to plate in its proper light th& right of the Minister of Agriculture to censuro and threaten the city for its inaction in tho matter. We proved that the city would have had its abattoir under tho Slaughtering and Inspection Act of 1900 by special order of the council without the necessity of a poll if it had not been for the mischievous obstruction of the Minister himself; and that this actioa of.bifljvag in .yiokvVioQ of the verbal J

1 assurance which he gave to members of the council when first approached on tbe matter, and in excess of what he then declared, rightly as we believe, to be the limit of his official duty, viz., to accept any site submitted by the council that eeemed to be suitable, and_not to pick and I choose. The Minister, whose deplorable action prevented the city from securing an abattoir five years ago under special facilities which no longer apply, is the one who now assumes the role of a critic, and of a very truculent critic, too; and such a performance certainly does not make it any easier for the city to do now the right thing, which it was prevented from accomplishing at the proper lime. Nevertheless two wrongs do not make a right, and in the present case tho city would be pirticularfy foolish to allow its natural resentment to prevent N it from doI ing what is not merely the right thing, but is imperatively demanded in its own interests. The fact that if the City Council's hands had not been unjustly tied we could havo lead of all the horrors recently revealed in Chicago with a comfortable assurance* that for five years we had been^ enjoying immunity from any such possibility would be a very poor reason for refusing to take the necessary steps for our own protection now. All that is needed is that the local consumer shall be given tho same protection that our foreign customers have long enjoyed, and though the City Council can no longer take the required precautions on its own account, it can do so at once with the sanction of the ratepayers. A. good deal of intermittent activity has been exhibited by the City Council in the matter since the great disappointment of 1901-2, but there has been no constancy o? purpose to back up its good intentions as expressed in spasmodic resolutions. Early in 1904, Mr. Garrett, whose site at Ntjahauranga, had been, apE roved by tho Minister when it was too its for the City Council to act upon it under the special facilities provided by the Act of 1900, and who had subsequently withdrawn his offer, notified the council that lie was again prepared to negotiate, and its Abattoirs Committee took the matter up at once, with the result that the terms of purchase were practically settled, subject to the provision of ways and means. "It is eetimated," says the Town Clerk in his report for the year 1904-5,- "that the total cost to th© council of acquiring the site and erecting the necessary, buildings will approximate to £20,000. It is perhaps worthy of note that the butchers have on several occasions met the council in deputation, and urged the speedy establishment of tho abattoiis. Final action may be expected during the ensuing year." It is hardly necessary to say that the expectation of the Town Clerk was not realised, and that practically nothing was don© beyond the appointment of a committee to consider the question. Tho occasion of this step was the reading of a letter from Mr. GUruth, the Chief Government Veterinarian, stating that he had " had to inform one of the largest retailers of meat in tho Wellington district that his premises were such as would hot warranfc-Jl renewal of his license under the Slaughtering and Inspection Act, 1900," and that this butcher, along with other retailers, had suggested the erection of up-to-date premises and paying fees for inspection, but that the possibility of the establishment of a municipal abattoir complicated tho position. Thus the absence of any provision for compensation deters the tradesmen themselves from talcing the step mentioned by Mr. Gilrutb, while the inaction of the council fails to substitute the neosssary public establishment. If the ratepayers realised that, there is at present no legal guarantee against a considerable proportion of tho in sat 6old in the city being above the Chicago standard, they would surely not allow a sum of £20,000 to stand between them and a pur* Supply.