BY HON. F. W. TAYLOR, M.I)., M.I-.C, D.P.H. 105 



stored in the cool chamber at the abattoir until required, and 

 the meat would be much more tender and palatable from being 

 kept a day or two, instead of being consumed a few hours after 

 killing, as must be done under the system of private imperfectly 

 equipped slaughter-houses. 



On hygienic reason abattoirs are to be commended, for their 

 erection would remove nuisances from the neighbourhood of 

 dwellings. I have not visited any of the slaughter-yards about 

 Brisbane for some years, but on one occasion, when a member 

 of the Central Board of Health, I was induced to inspect and 

 report on two yards about five miles each from here. One 1 

 found tolerably clean, the owner having done all that was 

 possible in the absence of eflticient drainage and a sufficient 

 supply of pure water to prevent his place becoming a nuisance 

 to the dwellers in the vicinity, but the fact that a slaughter-yard 

 being in existence was amply demonstrated nasally for a mile or 

 more to leeward of it. The condition I found the other yard in 

 defied any powers of description, but I have no hesitation in 

 saying that it could not possibly have been filthier, and more 

 loathsome than it was in all its details, and the smell was some- 

 thing to be remembered. It was situated on the bank of a 

 creek, which at the time of my visit was not running, conse- 

 quently all the drainage collected in a stagnant water-hole a few 

 yards away from the killing shed, the floor of which was of 

 round logs, defying all attempts at efficient flushing or scouring, 

 had any ever been made. The people living in the neighbour- 

 hood tried year after year to stop the issuing of a slaughtering 

 license to the owner of this yard, but without success. I do not 

 know whether it is still in existence, but if so sincerely hope 

 that it is in a decidedly better condition now than it was 

 formerly. 



Abattoirs would protect meat from exposure to the foul 

 emanations, which are so often an accompaniment of the private 

 slaughter-yard, would ensure the thorough examination of all meat 

 for disease, and would materially tend to limit the traffic in diseased 

 meat. On economic grounds abattoirs are desirable, for the 

 meat would be less liable to spoil, being slaughtered under better 

 conditions. Much blood and oft'al now lost would be saved and 

 utilised, and there would be a saving from order, the proper 

 division of labour, avoidance of driving animals along the roads. 



