A FAMILY OF FIFTEEN.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 January 1912, Page 3

A FAMILY OF FIFTEEN.

AEE SALESAI.SDS DANGEROUS

TO HEALTH

It was a popular belief at one time that to sleep above a cow byre was a remedy for many ills of the flesh. Be that as it may, the experience) of a father of a family of; litfecn at Puke kohe has led him to look lightly on the terrors which bacteriologists see in saleyards and the like.

At the Pukekohe Court on Thmsday the hearing of two informations laid against the Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., in respect of the conduct of their yards, gave rise f"> much oxpert medical evidonoo on these matters. A state of tilings injurious to health was allegefi. and tlie medical witnesses for the prosecution described the microbes with fearsome names and worsn characters that might possibly {1-urish under the alleged circumstances, A witness for tho defence, however, had lived riuht alongside tho yard tor twentylive years, and in tiiat time ho and his wife had reared an exceedingly he-ilthy family—only iifteun of them— without any unusual illness. ''Bu.t," said the witness with gently sarcasm, " if I had kuown all the doctors, have been telling us. of course X shouldn't have gjne there at all." A dismissal of both informations on points of law was moved for by Mr H. P Richmond, but the Magistiate (Mr Fraser) decided, after hearing, Mr Ma^m (for the Town Board), to reserve judgment on the v.'hole of tho question^ q| law aiul fact.