PORK AT BUTCHER’S

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1945, Page 2

PORK AT BUTCHER’S

COMPANY PROSECUTED HASTINGS, September 11. The alleged finding and disappearance shortly afterwards of five porker pig carcases from the butchery premises of J. B. Fletcher, Ltd., in Heretaunga Street, Hastings, on May 24 last, had a sequel in the Magistrate’s Court, Hastings, to-day, when the company was charged with the indictable offence of acting with intent to commit a breach of the Pork Restrictions Order, 1943. Mr. A. D. Laing, Government veterinarian, Hastings, and an inspector of meat, said he saw the carcases in a chiller at the defendant firm's shop. The carcases had not been properly inspected. None of the lymph glands had been cut. If the pigs had been slaughtered in an abattoir the glands would have been incised for examination for tuberculosis infection. The witness saw six stamps on each carcase on the usual places where carcases were stamped at the abattoir. The stamp was not the stamp of the Hastings abattoir, and had certain important differences. The witness decided to condemn the carcases. He went to the police station, but before leaving he gave instructions for the carcases to be held. When he returned with two detectives the carcases were not there. The manager said he had been very busy in the front shop, and he did not know anything about the matter. They then called on Mr. J. B. Fletcher at his house. The latter said he knew nothing about porker pig carcases being on his premises. Other evidence was called by the prosecution to show that the defendant company received sufficient pork through the proper channels to enable it to fulfil its hospital contract for the supply of pork without resorting to the five porker pigs. On a plea of not guilty, the defendant company was committed for trial at the next Supreme Court session in Napier.