CITY ABATTOIRS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4489, 17 October 1901, Page 4

CITY ABATTOIRS.

The City Council will this evening be callled upon to discuss the question of a site suitable for the erection of public abattoirs. Three different sites ' have been discussed by the Abattoirs Committee, the Minister of Lands and the parties' interested. The Hon. T. Y. Duncan hag ' visited the site about a mile and a half above Ngahauranga, as well as that situated near the Meat Export Company’s works at that suburb, and the one offered by Mr G. W. Banks, which is situated between Kaiwarra and Ngahauranga. It was, the opinion of the Minister that eithef of the sites mentioned might do, but that doubtless one particular site would prove to be more desirable than the others. A misunderstaning arose in the. minds of the members of the Abattoirs Com-, mittee as to the meaning of the Minister, and when they reported to the Council, that Mr Duncan would ratify the purchase of any of the sites mentioned, they had evidently misconstrued the Minister’s meaning. At all events, the determination of the Council to purchase and .establish abattoirs at Ngs. hauranga on a two-acre section has, in pursuance of the power* invested in him by Act of Parliament, been vetoed by the Hon. T. T. Duncan. In refusing hig sanction to the purchase, 1 Mr Duncan declare* that the butchers of Wellington are opposed to the erection of abattoirs at Ngahauranga. He also considers it would bs dangerous to drive cattle along the narrow road at Ngahauranga. where a school is situated, and that it is not desirable to have slaughter-yards near a growing township. Now, it is stated that the Abattoirs Committee has informed the Council that "only one or two butchers objected to the site” it had fixed % upon, that cattle need not be driven along the road after eight in the morning, and that it is absurd for the Minister to object to Abattoirs being erected at Ngahauranga while the meat works are retained there. These reasons do not adequately meet the Minister's objections. In the first place, the committee is in error when' it avers that “only on# or two bntcbenf’ objected to the Ngahauranga site. As

a matter of fact, the Minister of Lands received two petitions signed by some thirfy-three butchers of Wellington and suburbs, protesting against the Ngahauranga site as unsuitable for city abattoirs. It must be admitted, however, that the committee has fairly answered tbe objection of the Minister that it would be dangerous to school children to have cattle driven along the narrow road to Ngahauranga, by pointing out that no cattle need be driven along the road after eight o’clock in the morning. On the other hand, to characterise the Minister’s objection to establishing abattoirs at Ngahauranga as absurd, go long as the meat works are retained''there, is by no means valid. The slaughter-works there were erected before the passing of tho Act of 1900 affecting this question; and while •he has no power to order the removal of the meat, works there, the Minister is justified in protecting tho residents of Ngahauranga from an enlargement and aggravation of a nuisance in their midst.

Under the circumstances, and having regard to the growth and prospects of Wellington, an area of two acres for city abattoirs is am area altogether too inadequate. These thirty-three butchers who protested against the Ngahauranga site knew their business. The site, they argued, had no paddocks where stock could be cooled down after the excitement of driving, before, being turned into human food, while the water supply to be drawn from the creek is polluted by tho refuse from the tannery works. Protesting against the Ngahauranga site, the butchers urged that the site known as Banks’s should be acquired, because it'is in every way more suitable than that at Ngahauranga. It is surroqnded by large paddocks for depasturing ; it is said to possess a beautiful supply of pure water, and to be of easier access from either Wellington or Manawatu. The objection of‘'the Abattoirs Committee to Banks’s site was that it was leasehold, and that its configuration is such that some levelling would have to be done before abattoirs could be built. - The leasehold objection is of no moment# as the tenure may be readily Converted into a freehold, while the fact that a slaughter-houses is on the property already is sufficient proof that its configuration is not irremediable. The Minister, taking all these points into consideration, has refused to sanction the Ngahauranga site because Banks’s is preferable, and it - is now for tho Council to grapple with this question in a business-like way. When k site for city abattoirs is required, and one is found to answer all requirements present and prospective, Councillors would be failing-in their duty to the residents of Wellington if they nog. lected to acquire such a site. If it is shown that the leaseholders or owners are asking too much for .the property, let it be taken under the Public Works Act; and against a transaction of that, kind there can be no cavilling.