THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Thursday. March 25, 1909. MUNICIPAL MARKETS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12497, 25 March 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Thursday. March 25, 1909. MUNICIPAL MARKETS.

. The Dunedin City Council has lately been iuteresthig. itself in. the question of providing a municipal market, and in order to gather information on the subject, it instructed the Town Clerk, Mr R. W: Richards, to make an investigation and report. The result of Mr Richards' inquiries was embodied in a report presented to the Council at its last meeting, and some of his observations may be of service to local authorities elsewhere, who may at some time also consider the matter seriously as affecting their districts. Mr Richards, after referring to the ancient establishment of public markets and the extensive use made of tl-em in the Old Country, goes on to say that, unless proper provision in Dunedin is made for markets, in. the r. car future rent values of sites and ■ attendant factors will affect the charges of selling, and the. price of buying so largely as to possibly make I living much dearer and farming and producing less profitable. - The chief ■ essentials in determining ; upo_n the ; establishment of a market are cost . and site. Assuming the funds to be available, the selection of a suitable ■site is . of cardinal importance, the principal considerations being accessi-. bility and proximity to rail and water ; approaches of good width and unimpeded abundant roadway space oi _sound and solid strata. The class of producers who would be mainly cater- . Ed for in the markets would be local, ■ country and interurbah vegetable" 'i giowers, fruit growers and agents who conduct their" business all day | and £tore their emblements at night. - ; Mr Richards comments next upon ■ the necessity for stringent sanitary [ regulations, andrthen upon the vari- , ous classes of markets. _ He continues :— The cattle market should be r - provided by the local authority, because of the area required. Our public abattoir would be complete with ~\he - addition of a meat: market, and the sanitary inspectors would be enabled to keep a closer watch on the condition ' of -i!ho animals, and .the meat sold '■for human consumption. .The position of the abattoir, however, is somewhat against the provision of the - m6at market ;as an annexe thereto. Again, such an .installation in combination would require to have pro--7 vision for cold storage, but I think - the Council would be well advised if .'■■ it should be . determined upon to es--3 t&blish a market, if it were to com--3 mence with a general market for the r sale of all classes of food and general merchandise with cold storage provisions. The provisions for cold storr age would do much to prevent the sale t i the public of. tainted food. The report describes markets, particularly a for the salo of fish, which are success-: c fully conducted by " municipalities in r Australia. A statement is furnished showing that the average annual ex- ■ pendituTe on the new Belmore markets, Sydney, over a period of seven years, was £2,546 lls 6d, and the receipts £6,109 3s 2d. The average^ " figures for a similar period of the existence of the old Belmore markets 9 were: Receipts, £3,958 os. lid; expenses, £1,673 8s 7d. Mr Richards concludes his report by stating that ~ ha is fairly confident that if the Dunedin municipality undertake to complete the markets, the business will , make itself payable, provided that the 7 site is suitable for market purposes. 3 .". . '..- -■"■>"■ ■"- . ■' r ,-..-- .-■-- - —■■ .