View report page

99
Taking the year as a whole there has been an abundance of meat of
indifferent quality, the latter feature being especially marked in the closing
months of the year, when so much Argentine beef has come to compete with
the trade in carcasses of animals half fattened on the American ranches. Best
meat, especially mutton, has for the most part realised satisfactory prices, but
it has been weighted down by a superabundance of second and third class
qualities, which have not themselves been a good trade.
The wharves and cold-air stores have received careful attention, the arrival
of shipments in bad condition, especially in one case, having demonstrated its
necessity.
The following officers have been sent by the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty for instruction in meat examination, viz., one Superintendent
of Victualling Yard, one Deputy Store Officer, one Assistant Inspector of
Victualling Stores, six Fleet Paymasters, two Staff Paymasters, four
Paymasters and three Assistant Paymasters; all of whom, with one exception,
have been granted certificates of competency.
The degree of tuberculous disease which is to justify the condemnation
of a carcass is still a burning question between meat traders on the one hand
and Sanitary Authorities on the other. Whatever may be the case with
cattle, there can be no doubt that the necessity for severity in seizure is
exercising an influence tending to annihilation of the pig-breeding industry
of this country. Probably the practical remedy is an Act of Parliament, of
which the principle has already been approved, providing that where it can be
shown that the animals were in life apparently sound, the owner should be
compensated for their seizure. It is to be hoped that, should the Bill of last
Session again be brought forward, it will be found possible to simplify the
method of procedure.
TUBERCULOUS PORK.
The question as to dealing with tuberculous pork has been brought into
prominence in the Metropolis during the year owing to Sanitary Authorities,
through their medical advisers, acting on the recommendations contained in
the Report of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, 1898, as ordered by
the Local Government Board in circular letters addressed to the Councils of
Metropolitan and other Boroughs and of Urban and Rural Districts on the
11th March, 1899, and the 6th September, 1901.
With regard to pork, the Commissioners advised—
"In view of the greater tendency of generalisation in the pig, we
"consider that the presence of tubercular deposit in any degree should
"involve seizure of the whole carcass and of the organs."