View report page

127
(appendix) The several premises were inspected in July by the
Works, Sanitary, and General Purposes Committee, who
reported that they were ''found in good structural condition,
clean, and well kept." The Report continued as follows:—
"Every slaughter-house now appears to be properly drained, and to
have an 'appropriate' trap, the gully being covered with a fixed
grating, as required by the bye-laws.
"Wherever animals were found in the lairs, there also was found a
supply of water for their use, but generally in moveable receptacles.
"At some of the slaughter-houses there was a deficient supply of
receptacles for the storage of offal, &c., and usually the receptacles
for the storage of blood, which are supplied by the
collectors, were ordinary iron buckets, with large and loose
covers, instead of tight-fitting covers, as required by the byelaws.
In no case, however, was there any offensive accumulation
of blood, offal, or other refuse matter; nevertheless, steps
should be taken to secure the provision of an adequate number
of suitable receptacles.
"Taken as a whole, your Committee have never before found the
licensed premises in so satisfactory a condition .... and
for the first time they have no occasion to report breaches of the
bye-laws."
It may be mentioned that at the date of the passing of the
Slaughter-houses Act in 1874, there were some 1,429 slaughterhouses
in the Metropolis; at the end of 1882 there were only
858. In Kensington the reduction has been from 54 to 26:
the business of a slaughterer of cattle has not been "established
anew in the parish since 1874. A society has been started
in the Metropolis with the object of furthering slaughter-house
reform, viz., by the provision of public abattoirs, and the promotion
of painless methods of slaughtering. It has my best
wishes for its success, although I felt unable to accept an invitation
to occupy a seat on the Committee. The society proposes
to erect model premises, with the view of illustrating,
among other things, painless methods of slaughtering, an
object with which every humane person cannot fail to sympathise.