§ MR. GRAYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with 393 reference to his statement that an average of one thousand beasts per annum slaughtered by Irish Boards of Guardians as suffering from pleuro-pneumonia are by them sold to butchers at an average price of less than six pounds per head, and with reference to the statement of the Under Secretary to the English Local Government Board, that such a practice is unknown to them, Whether the Irish Local Government Board, which sanctions the sale of this diseased meat, informs itself whether or not the meat is ultimately retailed to the public at full price as healthy meat; and, whether, if the Board continues to permit the sale in future, it will do so under conditions which will ensure that the numbers of the public who purchase the diseased meat shall have notice of its quality, and thus be able to obtain advantages in price commensurate with the risks they run in consuming it, and proportionate to the reduced wholesale price charged to the butchers by the sanitary authorities on account of its diseased condition?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe sale of carcases, which are pronounced by the Veterinary Inspector to be fit for human food is not sanctioned nor controlled by the Irish Local Government Board. Section 30 of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, which applies equally to Great Britain and Ireland, sanctions such sales. This section does not admit of interference with what has become the private property of the purchaser of the carcase. It is not within the power of the Government to inquire into the profits which arise from the retail sale of such carcases, or to direct that they should be marked differently from other meat. The law is the same in England and Ireland. The difference is that in the one case the matter comes before the Central Government, and in the other it does not.
§ MR. GRAYDid I understand the right hon. Gentleman to say that the Local Government Board have no power under the Public Health Act to prohibit the sale of such meat; and is there no means, if the law is the same in the two countries, to prevent in Ireland the sale of diseased meat which does not take place in England?
§ MR. TREVELYANI did not understand my hon. Friend (Mr. George Russell) to say that this meat was not 394 sold in England. What my hon. Friend said was that it was unknown to the Local Government Board, for the reasons I have given. The sale is carried on under sanction of statute. I have no doubt Parliament might consider whether that section could be repealed; but, so long as it remains there, the Government have no power to interfere.
§ MR. GRAYI would like to ask the right hon. Gentleman, whether the Local Government Board in Ireland, of which he is Chairman, is not charged with the supervision of the administration of the sanitary and public health legislation, and has not absolute and peremptory control over that administration; and whether, in the capacity of Chairman of that Board, he will cause inquiry to be made as to whether quantities of diseased meat are sold by the sanitary authorities in Ireland—that is to say, the Boards of Guardians; and whether that diseased meat is not subsequently retailed at the same prices as healthy meat; and, whether he will ask competent medical men to report if such a proceeding is not dangerous to public health; and, if so, whether he will not exercise the powers vested in him to compel sanitary authorities to do their duty by seizing such meat?
§ MR. TREVELYANsaid, that, undoubtedly, the Local Government Board had powers under the Public Health Act to direct the sanitary authorities to make the inquiries to which the hon. Gentleman referred, and he understood that they were used in these cases. He was quite ready to make inquiries as to whether there was any carelessness on the part of the Boards of Guardians in connection with this matter.