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(money paid); G. M., 10, Sidney Street, exposing unsound beef
for sale in Green Street, fined £10 (money paid), about 201b. of
beef seized; M. G., 154, Hanbury Street, exposing rotten cherries
and strawberries in Brick Lane, gave false address and absconded,
about one barrow-load of fruit seized; G. G., 515, Hackney Road,
exposing bad meat at his shop, fined £50, about 5½owt. of meat
seized (money paid); G. G., 515, Hackney Road, for second
offence sent to prison for two months, about 2½cwt. seized; J. D.,
192, Brick Lane, unsound condensed milk used for the manufacture
of caramels and caramel toffee, fined £25 or one month,
43 tins of milk seized. A number of vendors were cautioned that
the quality of the food offered for sale was pretty close to the
line.
Early in the year I reoeived communications from Blanktown,
in the Midlands, and elsewhere, to the effect that horse-flesh and
carcases of animals that had died before being slaughtered were
being sent to a railway arch just outside the boundary of our
parish, where a catsmeat business was ostensibly carried on, and
that such meat was subsequently used for meat pies, sausages and
other table delicacies. The premises not being in our district, I
communicated such information as I possessed to the proper
officers, and was informed that they had known of what was going
on there for some time, but what could they do, every time they
visited they were told the proprietor bought and sold cat and dog's
meat, and he had nothing to do with what his customers did with
the meat they bought from him. I did not feel disposed to let
the matter rest so comfortably, particularly as the place was next
door to our own markets. With your permission I obtained some
outside assistance, watched the place night and day, and very soon
satisfied myself that the cat and dog's meat story was only a part
of the tale. In fact, I very soon found that the customers included
a " manufacturer of high-class meat pies," as well as a
sausage maker, both of whom I traced to their business premises
in two neighbouring parishes. Further observation disclosed the
fact that other of the customers were about as unlikely a looking
lot of cats' barrow men as could well be imagined, and I therefore
decided to do what ought to have been done by another authority,
i.e., make some attempt to stop this filthy trade. My difficulties
were aggravated by the fact that all the persons whom I traced for
a period of several weeks, resided outside our district, where, of
course, I could not make any seizure, or take any action. I therefore
placed myself in communication with the officers of three
neighbouring parishes, and put them in a position to see for themselves
what I had seen, at the same time suggesting that they
should follow the meat from the railway arch to the premises in
their respective districts, and on its arrival there, seize it, and