THE SLAUGHTERING INDUSTRY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1162, 1 November 1917, Page 6

THE SLAUGHTERING INDUSTRY.

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. During the hearing of a number of appeals on behalf of slaughtermen before the Third Military Service Board at. Wellington yesterday some interesting figures were presented to the board by Mr M. .1. Reardon concerning the slaughtering industry. "For the first three mouths of this year," said Mr Reardon, "the number of cattle slaughtered in New Zealand was 95,791. sheep 1,614,626, and lambs 1,770,442. The approximate number of slaughtermen employed was 1046, including 2.52 Australian slaughtermen. A beef team usually consists of three men, and as at least 31! works employ one team or more, this accounts for 99 men, leaving for mutton 695 New Zealand slaughtermen. On a basis of 70 working days, the number slaughtered worked out at 48,358 sheep and lambs per day, an average per man of 71. It may be argued that ou these figures the task is possible, but it is obvious that in practice it would be quite impossible to carry this out. No allowance is made in my figures for time lost by slaughtermen who may be off through accident or for time lost in moving from one works to the other."