A SMELLY SUBURB.

NZ Truth, Issue 103, 8 June 1907, Page 6

A SMELLY SUBURB.

Carrion at the CaUleyards.

On Friday of last week, a conviction was recorded against James Barbeir, manager for ihe Christchurch Meat Company, Ltd 1 , for having shored carrion and other sttinkng stuff on to a paddock belonging to his company near the cattleyards. Robert Bain, inspector of the Taieri County Council, was the informant, and he brought Lawyer D. Cooike to help him to make sure of the catch. In the course of evidence' brought for the nrosecution it was shown that th« compar>~ was m the habit of 'dumping entrails all over iMr two paddocks. It was really never cleaned up, and the smell was. putrid. W. E. Gladstone, health inspector, described the stuff that he saw on these paddocks »a just LIKE ROTTEN GUTS, and he had smelt 'a smell or two more than most people. Bob Bain s-iid that this borough of Green Island was crammed full of stinks ; a chap could not miss them if he tried, but the trouble was to classify them. There were the city abattoirs, Kemp-thorne, Prosser andi Co's woi'ks, Otago Fat and Tallow Co's factory, felimon«ser»es, sind munoi'ous similar institutions— a veritable Chicago. Bain further pointed out lhat .seagulls came by the thousand to thesp paddocks. 'After wallowing and messing about m this muck they flew away to the back of tho hill to the Silver sHarcam rc>sorvoir wherein they plunged their filthy feaUvers. Pleasant thoughts ! The accusation was that the company dumped paunches, bungs (the , large intestine 1 ), and other peccant j humour, including the hnlf-ohewedi grass remaining m the paunches at death, on to . these paddocks, causing a nuisance, and a incnaoe to the health of those who might be passim? along the public road m the vicinity. The carrion might bo heard callins from the catUeyards railway station. Hugh Kane, carting contractor, giviing evidence for . the defence, said th n ;t a horse was CLEANER THAN A MAN, and no horse would feed m a dirty paddock. However, Davy Ooolce got it out of the witness that these paddocks were fenced, the horses were I shut m, ami Wad «ji-ttwr to feed

there or go Kun&ry.- Magistrate Graham (remarked .that he had seen these gulls himsielf Seeding- all over these -paddocks. When he was m the vicinity he found the no/thiins less than .atrocious, and he said so. The place had been cleared up. since the information was laid. "When Dr., Will, of Abbot/sford, started evidencing, the tables seemed: about to turn m favor of the meat mixers. The health, of the district, he said,, was wonderful. During the past fifteen ' years there had heen no case of enteric fever or diptheria ;' no woman had 1 died m childbirth for twenty years past (no fault of the -doctor's,, though) ; and during the twelve months ending May : there had been only ten deaths m the district, the average age 'of ' thesiei- people being seventy-three years. .However. -it didn't work, and the '■ Bench asked fof a dole of £2 with -another fortylive to 1 ) to pay costsv. : It may not be the re,al offender wh<o has >■ suffered this time, but the conviction of the ChristchUrch Company will act as a warning to other • manufacturers round about .