Meat Inspection Committee.

Thames Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 8618, 24 March 1897, Page 5

Meat Inspection Committee.

:• A meeting of the Meat Inspection Committee was held last evening, at wlrich Messrs Radford (Chairman), Dalton, Foy, and Buvch were present. The Inspector (Mr Durham), presented the following report:—" I have the honor to submit for your consideration the following report on the condition of the slaughterhouses and dairies etc. in the district. I assumed the- duties of mj office on the 7th of January last, and have since that period regularly visited the slaughter- | houses and made daily inspections of the cattle slaughtered therein. I have had occasion to condemn two bullocks and one sheep as uufit for human consumption,! the disease being tuberculosis. The slaughterhouses are kept in good order, being thoroughly cleaned out each day and are in a good sanitary condition. The number of cattle slaughtered is as follows :—lst of January to March 15th inst.: West /and Co., Parawai, large cattle, 344; small cattle, which includes sheep, lambs, and pigs, 1618; Deeble and Son, Parawai, large cattle, 69 ; small cattle, 390. Ido not give any returns from Messrs Alley's slaughterhouses at Hikutaia, as with the exception of a few pigs and three or four hind quarters of beef monthly, their meat is sent to Paeroa and the district. I have inspected Mr Alley's slaughterhouses I five times during the last two months and found them in good order, the drainage at Mr J. Alley's being at my first inspection found defective ; this has now been remedied, aiid is working satisfactorily. I have also inspected the dairies and cows supplying milk to the Borough. There are in all 219 cows, and six of these I have condemned, not for being actually diseased, but being too old and as I found them in an unthrifty condition I did not consider them as being fit to supply milk. There was also one other cow which I advised to be destroyed, being tuberculous, but as it belonged to a private person (as I afterwards found out) I had no power to interfere. The premises in some of these dairies are not what they should be, but I have told the owners what to do, and I hope before my next inspection my suggestions as to improve I ments will be all carried out. In { conclusion I may say that altogether jl have found the cows in a fairly ! healthy state, and the dairy men and j vendors of milk williugto receive and act upon such suggestions to improve upon the existing state of affairs as I have been able to make to them, and I hope to in my next report to give a detailed list of the improvements etc., which have been made in the interim."

Before the report's adoption Mr Foy asked if any beasts were killed at Tapu. The Inspector replied in the negative but thought there would be some next month.

The Chairman was of opinion the committee meetings should be held monthly, as the bodies, which they as members represent, would, he thought, like to hear what the Inspector was doing.

It was resolved that the meetings be held at the County Council Chambers at 7.30 on the third Tuesday in each month.

The Chairman thought there should be hours fixed as to when persona should kill, as Be understood the Inspector had had some difficulty in his supervision. The Inspector said he had some slight bother in that direction, but he asked that a regulation be made that no butchers be allowed to kill cattle which have been yarded under fcur or five hours, and also that the killing should be finished by 5 o'clock in winter and 7.30 in summer.

The Mayor asked if the committee had power to pass such resolutions, The Inspector thought there was power, and on that opinion being given the Chairman moved in the direction of having such regulations amongst the list already passed. As to periods defining summer and winter it was resolved the summer montts for the purposes of the inspection be from the Ist of November to the 31st March and the remainder the winter months.

With reference to milk vending in shops, the Inspector said there was a clause in the Gazette regulations to the effect that milk cannot be sold by vendors who stock articles detrimental to milk. Most of the shop keepers here who sold milk had paid a fee of five shillings which entitled them to sell till 30th June, but he thought he should have power to see the premises were kept in good order. The Chairman thought the matter should be left in the Inspector's hinds —that is he should act if he saw the vendors were selling in dirty premises. He (the Chairman) would not like to «cc too harsh an interference, for some of the people who sold were poor and depended in some measure upon the trade of milk for their living,

The matter, it was decided, should be dealt with at the discretion of the Inspector. Some discussion ensued as to the inability of the Inspector to bring stock, owned by people who supply milk in a small way to their uelghborß, under his supervision, The opinion was generally expressed that if a person sold milk aJt all he should be on a level with a person looked upon as a milk hawker in a general sense. Those people " selling to their neighbour," and keeping say one, or at the most two cows, are clearly excluded by theregulations,butit was resolved.on the motion of Mr Burrh, that the Secretary have power to write to the Colonial Secretary and have the clause, which thus weakens the regulations, eliminated.

That concluded the business