A SUMMER DANGER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14174, 24 September 1909, Page 6

A SUMMER DANGER.

THE CITY MEAT SUPPLY.

CLOSED RAILWAY TANS.

According to Mr. George Knight, a member of the City Council and a master butcher, the meat supply of Auckland threatens to be a danger, rather than a blessing, unless the Railway Department makes fresh arrangements for its conveyance into the city before the hot weather sets in.

When the order paper at last night's meeting of the.City Council had been exhausted, save for ordinary business, Mr. Knight rose, and urged the Council to impress upon the Department the necessity for provision being made Tor an early train to bring the city's meat in from the abattoirs. "If the present conditions continue to exist in October and the summer months," he said, " and if a northerly wind should blow, three-quarters of the contents of every truck of meat will be abso-i lutely spoiled by the time it comes into the hands of the butchers. At present meat is placed into trucks at four p.m. or five p.m., and stands all night, in a still mass, fermenting. The large percentage of meat that will be spoiled under these conditions will be something appalling m a month's time." Mr. Knight added that if the Department would put on the early morning train, so urgently required, the master butchers would guarantee a daily, requirement of six tracks. The Mayor (Mr. C. D. Grey) said that the manager of* the abattoirs had informed him that he anticipated that, under the new time-table, to come in early in October, one of the early morning goods trains would probably bring in.the city's meat. Mr. Knight reiterated his warning that if the present conditions continued threequarters of the meat sent into the city from the abattoirs would be spoiled. "It goes into the trucks warm," he said, "and is put into a closed-up van, where there is no ventilation. There it lies until it is brought down next day to the butchers' shops, by which time much of it is rotten. I have," he added, "myself seen a 'very large amount of this contaminated meat in the last few months. And the butchlrs have to pay for that meat." Members of the Council acknowledged the seriousness of Mr. Knight's warning, but no action was taken, pending the new railway time-table arrangements being made known.