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requisite notice being given. From time to time suggestions have
been brought forward as to the possibility of establishing an abattoir.
I have on every occasion advised against it, on the grounds
that I do not think that at the present time the expense is justified,
owing to the fact that by far the greater part of the meat coming
into the district is bought at Smithfield and inspected there. There
does not seem to be with the growth of the district any great
demand for further facilities for slaughtering at present.
3. Action under Section 117, Public Health Act, 1875.—
During the year a small quantity of tripe was seized and subsequently
condemned by a Justice of the Peace. A warning letter
was sent to the vendor.
4. Tubercular Meat.—There was none seized, but 957 lbs.
were surrendered during the year.
The slaughter-houses on the whole are kept, so far as their
construction will allow, in a fairly satisfactory condition. The
butchers still continue to buy largely in the London wholesale meat
markets.
The Public Health (Meat) Regulations, 1924, continue to cause
a considerable amount of work, although there has been a decrease
of the amount slaughtered. The slaughtering is often continued
well into the evening to suit the personal convenience of the
butchers.
Most of the butchers have accepted the restrictions imposed by
the Regulations in the right spirit, but in 11 instances no notice
or insufficient notice of slaughtering was given, a number of which
could be avoided with a little forethought. There has been built
up gradually a feeling of confidence in the decisions given and this
is shown by the fact that the whole of the unsound and diseased
meat dealt with during slaughtering was surrendered.
When new butchers' shops are opened every effort is made to
obtain fixed windows, but with the absence of positive power to
demand fixed windows, there is a tendency on the part of some of