View report page

34
because the bye-laws, if duly enforced by the sanitary staff, are sufficiently
precise and stringent to ensure a satisfactory result in this
respect; their remarks, therefore, on the several slaughter-houses will
be mainly confined to the enumeration of structural defects, inasmuch as
after the 'needful works and repairs to the premises' have been
executed, ' no alteration may be made in respect of the paving, drainage,
ventilation, or water supply to or in the premises without the consent
of the Metropolitan Board of Works.'
"And here your Committee would beg to observe that although the
' slaughter-house itself is defined to be but a ' portion of the premises,'
that portion, namely, used for killing, there are no bye-laws to ' regulate
the structure ' of the lairs or pens, which are often the most defective of
all, whether regard be had to their position and construction, to the accommodation
they afford, to their lighting and ventilation, or even to the
condition in which they are kept. It may be that the framers of the byelaws
deemed it unnecessary to make provision for lairage, having
directed that cattle should not be kept in the 'premises' for a longer time
than ' absolutely necessary ' before slaughtering : but, in fact, cattle are,
as before stated, often kept for days either to ' cool,' or to suit the exigencies
of trade, and, therefore, proper provision should be made for their
accommodation. Such provision, it may be added, will have to be made
before the ' local authority ' will give their ' sanction ' to ' establish anew
the business of a slaughterer of cattle,' i.e., before a new slaughter-house
can be licensed.
" Your Committee have only further to add, in explanation of the defects
of existing slaughter-houses, that the premises inspected were, with two
or three exceptions, never designed for the use to which they are applied.
Most of them are nothing more than ordinary stables, and when the premises
are very small, it has been customary to use the coach-house indifferently
for killing and as a cart-shed, and the stable for the common use
of horse and 'cattle, using that word in its broad sense. In larger
premises some attempt has been occasionally made to separate the stable
from the slaughter-house, generally with ill-success, from want of
room, etc. Some of the slaughter-houses are only lean-to sheds, or even
washhouses in original construction, and the work of adaptation has not
proved easy or successful. The situation of many of the slaughter-houses,
moreover, in private and other mews near accumulations of foulsmelling
refuse cannot but be regarded as objectionable, and extreme
care is necessary in order to keep the locality in a wholesome condition
by regular cleansing, and by frequent removal of manure, etc."
The Committee then proceeded to specify the slaughter-houses
inspected, grouping them as follows:—
1st. Those for which the license will not be applied for again
(eleven in number). 2nd. Those to which no opposition need be
offered (seven). 3rd. Those that are so objectionable in some
respect that the renewal of the license should be opposed (six).
4th. Those the renewal of the license to which should be opposed
unless certain specified improvements of the premises are made, of
which notice should be given forthwith (twenty-four.) In an appendix
the Committee reported the actual condition of each of the
slaughter-houses in the third and fourth groups at the time of
inspection.
The views set forth in the above report were adopted by
your Yestry, and successfully carried out at the licensing session,
but not without a good deal of opposition, owing to the fact that
the Metropolitan Board of Works had adopted a lower standard
of the requirements for a slaughter-house. The Board, for instance,