FOWLS IN INNER AREA

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1930, Page 10

FOWLS IN INNER AREA

HOTEL PROPRIETORS CHARGED. BOROUGH COUNCIL TAKES ACTION. “No person in the inner area shall keep more than 10 head of poultry in any yard, pen, poultry house, poultry run or other enclosure,” was the Stratford borough by-law under which the borough council took proceedings against Kirkwood Bros, at the Stratford Court yesterday. The yard in question is on a section towards the rear of the County Hotel. It' was alleged that more than 10 fowls were kept under unclean conditions. No finality was reached, the case being adjourned. The borough inspector, examined by Mr. N. H. Moss, for the borough, Arthur E. Sayers, said he had inspected the yard on June TO. The yard was about a quarter of an acre in extent, with a two-roomed unoccupied whare on it. The fowl house had a dirt floor and wooden perches. The surface of the yard was dirt, with clumps of shrubs, bones and ashes scattered over it. In 1927 Tie had had to serve Kirkwood Bros, with a notice under the Health Act in respect of the fowl yard, which he had considered a menace to health, and offensive. It also had harboured vermin. Approximately 100 fowls had been in the yard. Since 1927 the number of fowls had been reduced or increased, according to the demand. In 1928 he reported to the council on the yard. Last May he found about 100 fowls in the yard, where loose straw and bones were in evidence. Notice was served upon defendants to reduce the number of fowls to that prescribed in the borough by-law. Three weeks after the notice was served he visited the yard again, when the fowls had been reduced in number to 00, while the yard had been cleaned.

After 1927, Mr. Sayers continued, he went thoroughly into the matter of residents in the inner area keeping fowls, and as a result of his inspections 1000 fowls were removed from the area.

Questioned by Mr. A. Coleman, for the defendants, witness said that he knew no one in particular to whom the yard was a nuisance. Herbert Dixon, assistant borough inspector, who has had experience of poultry at the Ruakura and Pukeora Government institutions, stated that he had inspected defendants’ yard and did not consider it sanitary. The yard had once been the subject of complaint of a nearby resident, said the town clerk, Phillip Skoglund.

BY-LAW DEEMED UNREASONABLE

The by-law was being resisted, said Air. Coleman, on the grounds that it was too wide for the subject matter, and therefore unreasonable. It was also oppressive to the extent that it could find no justification in the minds of reasonable men. . .

For 25 to 30 years fowls had been kept on the section, said Edward J. Kirkwod. On May 21 the borough inspector served notice to reduce the number of fowls to comply with the by-law. In serving the notice, said witness, the inspector stated that he was satisfied with the yard, but that he had been instructed to enforce the by-law. Charles Massey, manager of the Bank of Australasia, who, with his family, has resided in bank buildings on that section for 20 years, stated that as far as he was concerned the fowl yard might easily have not existed. It had not caused the slightest nuisance to him, though the dwelling portion of the bank buildings was about 100 feet from the yard, which fronted Miranda Street and adjoined the back of the bank' section. Charles Higgs, manager of Hannah and Co;, and Thomas Anderson, a resident on Miranda Street, both of/whose premises abut on the fowl yard, denied that the presence of the yard there caused any trouble to them. ;

Albert J. Davey, a poultry farmer, said he knew the yard well, and considered no one could find cause for complaint. Sixty fowls in a quarter-acre section such as the one. in question were a mere bagatelle. He had visited the yard of a poultry farmer in a thickly-populated suburb of Christchurch,, where 2000 fowls were kept bn a quarter-acre section. He could see no danger in keeping fowls in tire inner area. . ’

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