LOCAL MEAT SUPPLY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 132, 7 June 1906, Page 3

LOCAL MEAT SUPPLY.

THE SYSTEM OF INSPECTION. NO CAUSE~FOR ALARM. The Chicago meat revelations, have caused a stir amongst consumers of tinned meats, and the allegations of Mv Moore, of Wellington, as contained in the foregoing article, have brought home to New Zealanders the. need for enquiry as to the degree and method of slaughterhouse and freezing works inspection. The consumers of butchers' meat in this district will perhpas breathe more freely for a reminder of the statement made at the last Agricultural Conference by Mr J. A. Gilruth, Chief Veterinarian, that Marlborough's live stock was less tainted with tuberculosis than that of any other province in the Colony. .■ ; : , ; . A few words with Mr A. D. Gillies, Government Inspector at the Blenheim Municipal Abattoir, elicited tlie assurance that every beast slaughtered there was carefully examined, and those condemned—fortunately they are few—-are either buried or burned. The offal was also inspected and kept free .from taint, and nothing was ever allowed to find its way into the pigstye but what was taken from -pure beasts. , Mr..Gillies pointed- out that much of what would go to enrich the offal from an ordinary abattoir wiould be made use of'io manufacture byproducts, in a fro&en-nieat or canning works. :>;

A conversation which the reporter had with one of the leading Blenheim butchers brought out nothing beyond the information that meat slaughtered without Government inspection could be vended at Springlands, Redwoodtown, Riverlands, or Grovetown.- The Abattoir registered mark was only necessary for meat sold within' (the Borough. The inference was that the butcher considered the suburban consumers very unwise in not petitioning for the extension of the abattoir district. Questioned facetiously about the make-up of the firm's renowned fry-sausages, he ,of. the striped apron and portly figure declared that the public were' welcome to come inside and watch the procsss. The reporter expressed his sense of the futility of any attempt to unearth a Blenheim meat scandal as regards butchers' lots, and remarked that the main suspicion rested with the canned meats. The Knight of the Cleaver said that the people who preferred that sort of meat had to take all the consequent risks.- There was plenty of perfectly wholesome fresh-killed meat to be had. ■ The Abattoir Manager, it might be added, pointed out that all tinned meats "put'up" in the Colony bore the Government inspection certificate.