Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1899.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIII, Issue 137, 14 June 1899, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1899.

|| To-mobbow tho ratepayers of Nelson | will be called npon to exercise their I privilege' of the voie to decide oue of the most important local questions that has been raised for years. For several months before definite action wil taken by the City Counoil it waa known fo many that the slaughtsr-houees which furnish the oity with iti meat supply almost without ezevption were very unsatisfactory. Such inspection as they received had degenerated into !a farce, and from time to time at least one correspondent sonnded a warning not* that if the evils of thi system were made thoroughly pnblio the residents wou'd be shooked and revolted. At length the City Council took action, in its oapacity aa the Board of Health, and id was determined to obtain a report by personal inspection from the Chief Government Veterinarian, Mr Gilrnth. Tha revelations made ia that report matt be fresh in the minis of oar reader*. Its details were so revolting that the local newspapers almost hesitated to publish them in their naked horror lest injury she nld be done to tbe interest of tbe oity till a radical' _______________________

alteration in the methods of slaughtering meat had been made. However, the details were published, with the result ihat a large number of families have since become practically vegetarian., while the sale of pork and the small goods made from it haa dwindled vp ry material'y, pigi being at once the scavengers and the principal nuisance around the sktughterhouses. Mr Gilruth's report also showed not only that there waß an absence of cleanliness in the slaughterhouses themselves, but that cleanliness and healthy surronndings of meat while washing and cooling after olaughter were practically impossible owing to the water supply of the slaughter- hous- s being mora or less tainted by Boakage and drainage, chiefly from tho pigs. Moreover, efficient inspection, not only of the Blaughter-houses, but also of the animals handled, was shown to be diffionlt if not altogether out of the question because, of the lack of concentration and centralisation. This circumstance, in view of the fact that numbers of cattle como to the city from districts in the North Island known to be affected by cattle diseases, is one of tbe strongest arguments in favour of the establishment of an abattoir nnder expert veterinarian control, especially aa there is at pre cn t soarcely one duly qualified veterinary surgeon in the whole district. Acting on the recommendations of Mr Gilruth, the- City Council, throngh a Committee, prepared a scheme of public abattoirs, nnd tbe proposal to borrow £7500 to build an abattoir will be deoided tomorrow by tho vote of tho ratepayers. Under the provision, of the Act by whioh the vote is taken it is not necessary that a certain proportion of the ratepayers on the roll shall vote, nor is it required that the majority .hall be defined. Whether few or many vote, the bare majority of the votes cast will be sufficient to sanction or negative the proposal. But we desire to urge once more on the ratepayers that they owe it as a duty to themselves, to their families, and to the interests of the city to exer cisc their right of franchise, even at personal inconvenience if need be. The vote will ba taken under the new Act, with the -'one man one vote " principle, but only freeholders and ratepayers will have the right to decide for or against the loan, lhe voting power is, therefore, narrowed down and limited to propertyholders and actual ratepayer?, on whom a very grave responsibility rests to-morrow. It should be distinctly understood that in voting for the loan the ratepayers do not pledge themselves to the report of the Abattoirs Committee, which report, ns a groundwork or plan of action has been provisionally adopted by the Cily Council. The only question for de.ision at present ia whether the Council shall or shall not be authorised to borrow the money for the erection of an abattoir. Afterwards it will be quite practicable to completely amend the proposals of the Abattoir Committee, even in regard to the site to bo chosen for the abattoir. Public opinion and the Councillor!-.' sense of duly may be trusted ; hence it is obscuring the issues involved to consider that, because the ratepayers may vote sanction to the loan, therefore they are voiiDg the adoption of the Abattoir Committee's report on hard-and-fast lines. As to the arguments and pleas of those who have always been foremost to urge delay whenever modern progress his made au effort to accom* plish something in Nelaon, suroly the resident have had bitter warning against them in the past. It is these survivals of the nnfit who have held the city back while Wellington has gone forward : it is these fossilised intellects that bave earned for Nelßon from one end of Australasia to the other the pitying sobriquet ol " Sleepy Hollow." They are of the race that is waiting to " sup on lavrocks when the lift falls," as the'j Scots proverb hath it. They were also known to proverbial philosophy in the days of early Greece andßomo, and of them it was eaid Ruslions expectat dnm defluit amnis. Ihat is to say, they stand on the banks of a river, deferring the crossing till it has rolled by, and wait for a feed of larks till tbe sky descends to the earth. They would have the oitizenß continue in the wallow of the shambles because forsooth at some future date not specified freezing works may be established here, with their own slaughtering yards— forgetting or ignoring the fact that any business venture of the kind would naturally avail itself of an existing abattoir rather than go to the expense of erecting one of its own. Then, too, these people do not seem able to differentiate between a loan pro' ponal and the report of a Committee, and they try to involve others in the fog that (surrounds themselves by obscuring the real iesues. Let tho ratepayers to-morrow think for themselves, and aot for Ihe-present anJ fnture wellbeing, firstly of their children, who are being brought up on meat.ODd next of the important; fact that Nelson owes such prosperity as it has very largely to the circumstance that it is a health resort, to which many hundreds of elderly people nud invalids come to reside. If abattoirs and efficient meat and food inspection generally be essential in other places, snoh as Invercargill, thoy are still more essential iv Nelson. If the proposals submitted to the ratepayers to-morrow be defeated in their initial stage, not only will a stigma be cast on the fair repute of the oity, but it may be many years before another movement towards sanitary progress will be made. Tho result of to-morrow's poll, therefore, will be of the gravest import to the common well-boing. It will decide whether the filthy slaughterhouses described in Mr Gilruih's report are still to furnish the men. women, nnd children of Nelaon with their principat food or whether the first step towards the sanitary distribution of meat and other food supplies shall be { taken.