Page:Municipal Handbook of Auckland 1922.djvu/235

 The Abattoir is subject to inspection by the Department of Agriculture, which supplies qualified Inspectors to examine all stock killed. Stock inspectors also make a regular ante-mortem inspection of stock offered at the fat stock sales, and condemn all stock, before slaughter, whose condition warrants it. Stock condemned at the Abattoir does not become a total loss to the owner, a small amount, in most cases, being paid as compensation by the Government, the balance, over and above the small sum obtained from the sale of the diseased meat, being met by the Condemned Stock Insurance Fund, to which the majority of the butchers contribute.

The drainage of the Abattoir is easily dealt with, on account of its position on the foreshore of the Manukau Harbour. Having nothing more offensive to deal with than the effluent from the septic tanks and the water from washing down the Abattoir, a holding tank which debouches its contents daily on the ebb tide is the extremely simple and effective method of dealing with this most important matter.

The chief factor in the cleanliness of an Abattoir and the health of stock is water. When the Abattoir was first started, a supply of water was obtained from a well in close proximity, but this supply was found to be most unsatisfactory, being strongly impregnated with oxide, which left a red deposit wherever used, and was full of vegetable poison, which soon caused heavy mortality amongst—the stock