ABATTOIRS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10495, 19 October 1895, Page 3

ABATTOIRS.

TO THE EDITOB.

Sib,—As the question dealt with in' &B'.fifa» lowing article is of the greatest interest at the present time to the citizens'of Dunedin .and suburbs, I make no apology in asking you to publish it for geceral information. It is taken from a periodical called the "Hospital,'' o| August 17 last.—l am, &c,

H_&-EiSßr,.sl»jo£,

Dunedin, October 16.

"■Franc SwuanTBBJMDSES amgoriso • '■'-. • Mbat. .

"Sir Henry Eittlejotra, the wcil-fcnown medical officer of health for the (Sty of Bdiaburgh, made, a statement at the annaal congress of the British Iniiitate of Public Health the other day which may well excite surprise and envy in the minds of English sanitarians. He informed the congress that in Edinburgh private slaughterhouses had been abo&bed for lOOyears. But what does Ode mean ? Itme*na at least two resells of the .highest laxritary feaportauce. In the first place, all meat killed in public slaughterhouses can be competently inspected by the public authorities.; and in tho second place, the public slaughterhouse, being under municipal control, need never become a nuisance and a danger from the neglect of thorough cleansing/ Public slaughterhouses, in. a word, mean sound meat for all classes-of purchasers, and a wholesome and sanitary place for the killing and dressing of animal carcases for the markei. "What are the facts as Regards many of the towns south-of the Tweed-? Hera private slaughterhouses abound, with the two consequences that meat is seldom competently inspected, and that such slaughterhouses, from want of adequate cleansing, become centres "of foul and pestilence-breeding smells. If woasfc, •how o*n these things be' in an age in which. science is everywhere active? tte answer -ia that even-eeience, like morals and religion, bxa to • speak with hated breath and whispering, humbleness' in the presence of all powerful •vested interests.' Now we are among those who have the sincerest respect for all easts of vested interests which fee law has allowed ta, grow up under its own shadow. Nevertheless,, 1 the safety of the State is the supreme law; and it is a disgrace to our civilisation and sanitary science that we have found no way of so-dealing with vested interests as legitimately and, honestly to abolish them iv the higher interests of the public. .Pablio slangbterboasej, with competent inspection of meat, oaght to be the rule in every municipality in the civilised wotld. Every municipality which has failed to establish these must to that extent be considered a, failure unwocthy of the scienca aodiciviltsation, of the nineteenth century." ~_.-. ,^.