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Horns.—These after preparation are used for fertilizer.
Heads.—The flesh from the sides of the head, cheek meat, is either frozen for export or canned.
The skull is split by a special machine, the brain carefully removed and the bones then sent to the digester
and ground, after which they are used for fertilizer.
Brains.—These are carefully frozen and either used locally or exported.
Tongues.—These are washed, trimmed and either canned or frozen for export.
Sweetbreads..—These are frozen for export, if not used locally.
Lungs.—All lungs are put into the digester, the majority being affected with parasitic disease.
Hearts.—These are either used for making Meat Extract, canned, or frozen for export.
Livers.—Only a very small percentage are free from parasitic disease ; these are frozen for export.
The diseased ones go to the digester.
I found a great number of the lungs of both sheep and cattle affected with echinococcus veterin.
orum, the cystic stage of the taenia echinococcus, and its presence in such proportions is due to the
great number of dogs used in sheep and cattle droving.
Pillars of Diaphragm..—These are either canned or frozen for export.
Stomachs.—Portions of these are frozen for export, the remainder goes to the digester for fertilizer.
Spleens.—These are put into the digester.
Omentum and Mesentery..—The fat of the mesentry and the omentum is converted into oleo.
Intestines.—These after examination and preparation are salted and packed for export; the portions
unsuitable for export go to the digester.
Kidneys..—If these are not left in the carcase they are carefully packed and frozen for export.
Tails.—These are frozen for export if not consumed locally.
Trimmings.—Trimmings from the carcases, generative organs, etc., are collected and sent to the
digester.
Sheep Offal.—This is dealt with in a similar manner; everything possible that is fit for human
consumption is taken every care of, the other portions going to the digester. The skins are sent to the
fell.mongering department where they are dealt with, the wool being dried and baled and the pelts
prepared for export.
Every possible care is taken of the meat when it leaves the refrigerator for the ships. In the majority
of cases the'meat export slaughterhouses are located alongside a shipping port, but in a few cases
the premises are in live stock centres, inland, the meat being carried to the port of shipment in insulated
railway vans. When shipped into over.seas steamers at open roadstead ports, insulated lighters are
used for conveying the frozen meat and products from the freezing works to the steamers. This, however,
is only necessary in the case of three or four of the works.
MEAT INSPECTION AS CONDUCTED IN NEW ZEALAND.
To carry out the very important work of meat inspection, the live stock division has twenty
veterinarians, thirty.two abattoir inspectors and eighty.six inspectors at the various meat works.
The following figures will show the extent and importance of the work. They indicate the number of
carcases inspected during the year ended 3lst March, 1919.
Meat export
Abattoirs. Slaughterhouses.
Cattle 88,945 218,871
Calves 14,547 4,325
Sheep 480,372 3,690,152
Lambs 83,479 2,845,413
Pigs 44,879 56,625
In addition 19,536 pigs slaughtered in bacon factories were inspected.
DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM OF MEAT INSPECTION.
The meat inspection in each of the meat export slaughterhouses is under the control of a veterinary
surgeon, who has under him a staff of lay inspectors (assistants) who do the actual work, the
veterinary inspector supervises. All cattle and sheep are examined ante.mortem by the veterinary
inspector.
Cattle.—The method of examining the carcase and their organs are very similar to those employed
in the City of London, and are as follows:—
Every organ is carefully examined, palpated, and the glands incised, after which the carcase is
gone thoroughly over, the serious membranes, the bones of the vertebrae examined and the superficial
glands incised. If there is no evidence of disease in the carcase or organs it is passed on, but before
being labelled .and clothed for export it is examined again, therefore there is little likelihood of any
diseased carcase getting through. If any disease is found in a carcase of beef or its organs, it is sent to
a detention room—a part of the cooling room is set aside for this purpose—there it is examined by
the Veterinary Inspector and all the deep seated glands incised before judgment is passed. Any
carcase, portions of a carcase, or organs condemned, are at once sent to the digester and dealt with
under the supervision of the authorities.
Sheep.—In addition to being examined in the killing room, an inspector examines each carcase
as it passes the weighing scale, observing the serious membranes and palpating the parts containing
the precrual, inguinal and prescapular lymphatic glands. If they are found free from disease and of
good quality they are labelled for export, but if of poor quality they are sent to the canning department.
Pigs.—A very careful examination is made of all pigs carcases and their organs and if the slightest
trace of disease is found either in the carcase or its organs, the carcase is chopped into two sides, the
serious membrane bones of the vertebrae and lymphatic glands all examined and if—in the case of
tuberculosis—the disease is localized in the head it is removed, and the carcase passed as fit for human