THE CARRIAGE OF PIGS.

Evening Star, Issue 12871, 21 July 1906, Page 8

THE CARRIAGE OF PIGS.

.IXXJAL CONDITIONS. , carcasses come into Dunedin by rail m small numbers, and from -wide districts , m such small numbers indeed that no special provision is made for their carriage by th© railway authorities. On© carcass is picked tip at a wayside station, a second a httle further on, a third here, and a possible fourth somewhere eke. The carcasses are laid amongst other goods, (sometimes, no doubt., under other goods, on the floor of an ordmary roadside waggon. They are not covered up. Let m, follow th4i to *"F The train stops at a station; the waggon bearing the carcass is opened. Men enter with muddied boots, bearing _goods consigned further down the P 6 ' , have to step across tie pigs to set down their loads. At all events + T e to jT 8 the 800r > in crom--67 rt - mud is not dean mud. Again, the station may be a flag datimL The- carcass of a big -2cwt or 3cwt brood sow, may b© on the p£tform. Naturally it is dragged across the platform to the waggon and thrown in. It picks up all it can pick up on the road. When the destination ls reached this pig and the eK LT from the waggon to the goods shed, wheeled oat most probably, but- in some cases no doubt dragged out. Once m the goods shed they arefaid on gratings specially designed to keep them from contact with the ground. There they await -the -arrival of the consignee. Can it be wondered that carcasses often arrive and are taken delivery of in a dirty and even bruised state? The Health Officer JMs for some time past been investigating these conditions, and he suggests thataS consignors be compelled to provide covers for carcasses to be, railed, and that the railway people refuse to put aboard a train any uncovered carcass. The objection raised to this appears to be that if the flesh has not set when the pig is covered the covering prevents it from setting firm. It strikes the layman that carcasses should not be sent out till they are firm. The Health Officer further suggests that a rail should run the length of the waggons, and that the carcasses should be> hung clear of the floors.

This is where the railway people come in. Two or three of them were interviewed by a ‘ Star ’ reporter this morning, and tK« is the tenor of thoir opinions:— We are handling only some twenty pig carcasses a day, and these are coming in from all quarters. To send out tho special meat waggons on half, a dozen trains would mean a waggon built to carry on hooks some fifty or sixty carcasses coming in with two or three. It amounts to this, that there is no trade to make provision for. That the flesh must, in many cases, suffer through being carried as at present was freely admitted, though it was confidently and no doubt truthfully asserted that the floor's are kept, as dean as possible, and everything practicable is done to keep the carcasses from defilement. But, as on© officer, said, there were tiroes when the carcasses could not be handled in any other way than by dragging them, and the passage of many feet through, the waggons and the contact of other goods must in a measure defile, or at all events dirty, the carcasses.. This officer quite agreed that consignors should be compelled to provide covers.

It may be said that frozen meat is always covered, and is, of course, carried in apodal insulated waggons, while sides of meat and mutton, which, are often railed in consignments of forty and fifty carcasses, are carried in meat waggons specially de-' signed for the purpose. But the pig comes singly or with but few mates, and he must, take his chance with the rest of the goods.