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131
although it would be apparently a perfectly simple matter to pass
an enactment that no further private slaughter houses should
be licensed in any place in England, and empowering every
Sanitary Authority to erect at the public charge a Municipal
Abattoir, it is not probable that Parliament will break away
from its long established usage of non-interference with what
has been sanctioned in the past.
We should then still have for very many years to come
the old slaughter-houses to deal with.
A far simpler plan, and very effective, as it appears to me,
would be to pass an enactment compelling every slaughterman
to obtain a permit from the local inspector. This would inflict
no hardship on the dealer in sound animals and would give the
Inspector the opportunity of examining the carcase at the
moment of evisceration. This is of the very greatest importance
for after a beast has been dressed for shop it is often quite
impossible to detect disease without cutting into the meat,
which of course no butcher would allow unless compensation
was paid for damage.
Complaints.—996 Complaints were received for the year
under review 581 written and 415 verbal. The greater number of
complaints referred to stopped drains, for occupiers and owners
are encouraged to send on the information when anything is
wrong or suspected of being out of order with the drains.
Many of the matters referred to by complainants were outside
the jurisdiction of a Sanitary Inspector, while some were
frivolous, others vindictive, but the majority were bona-fide
complaints of nuisances which required attention.
A large number of anonymous letters was received, which
had the fullest attention, as there are frequently good reasons
for withholding the name.
Complaints were received in the various Wards as
follows ;—