Diseased Meat.

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 754, 10 June 1893, Page 3

Diseased Meat.

It is satisfactory to find that the City Fathers are keeping the appointment of a meat inspector— first suggested by the Observer— steadily in view, if all I hear is true, the appointment cannot be made too soon. The present dangers attendant upon the consumption of meat are almost serious enough to warrant us in leaving meat as an article of diet severely alone, and becoming a city of vegetarians. Diseased meat, as is well-known, is a prolific cause of cancer, and Dr. Walker long ago drew attention to the fact that cancerous diseases were terribly common in Auckland. And how about the present out-break of measles ? Is it not reasonable to suppose that measly pork may have been the original cause of the epidemic which is just now keeping the doctors so busy ?

Pigs are more subject to measles than any other animals, and as there is no law to prevent country breeders from killing their own swine, or from sending the carcases to town for sale, afterwards, the connection between pork for dinner and measles after dinner may be closer than some people suppose. Dr. King, who deserves the thanks of the community for his efforts to secure the appointment of a meat inspector, drew public attention some time ago to the great danger of allowing dogs to consume diseased meat as the dogs might as a consequence be the indirect means of passing on to human beings some of the most loathsome diseases of which we have any knowledge. At the recent conference of local bodies, when delegates of the various suburban councils met the Auckland City Council to discuss the diseased meat question, some things were said which pointed more strongly than ever go the urgent necessity for the appointment of a qualified meat inspector.

Mr Lumpkin, for instance, remarked that butchers could so dress a pleuritic sheep that no sign of disease could afterwards be detected. As the statement has been allowed to go unchallenged I conclude that it is true. Then Mr Aitken reiterated his statement about the cancerous cow. 'As I told the Mayor three months ago,' he said, ' I can take and show him a cancerous cow from which milk is daily sold.' But is it not Mr Aitken's duty, if he can really do what he says, to proclaim the name of the man who is deliberately sowing the seeds broadcast of one of the most awful diseases which afflicts humanity ? It is perfectly monstrous that such a state of things should be allowed to exist for one hour longer ! If Mr Aitken can prove his assertion, and that should b 6 au easy matter if, as he declares it is a perfectly true one, why then I say it is his duty to speak out, to speak plainly, and to speak at once. He can have nothing to fear in consequence.

The one thing needful in connection with the diseased meat question is the appointment of a really competent man, and if the appointment were a government and not a municipal one, as I advocated weeks ago, it would be far preferable. And the remuneration offered him must be commensurate with the importance of the duties required. Although the appointment of an Inspector will do much to check the sale and distribution of bad meat, we shall never get to the root of the evil until legislation steps in to close the scattered slaughterhouses of this city and its suburbs, and enforce the establishment of one great central abbattors where all meat shall be killed and inspected before it leaves the building. But let us get our Inspector first and if the press does its duty and keeps this matter constantly before the public legislation will come later.