§ MR. GRAYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as President of the Irish Local Government Board, Whether Irish Boards of Guardians sell for use as human food the carcases of cattle affected with pleuro-pneumonia, and slaughtered under the provisions of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act; and, if so, whether he can state approximately the number of animals so disposed of, and the average price received for the carcases? The hon. Member added that if the Notice he had given had not been sufficient to enable the right hon. Gentleman to answer the Question, he would request him to investigate the subject during the Recess, and to ascertain why Boards of Guardians in Ireland, with the sanction and approval of the Local Government 1469 Board, were permitted to sell this diseased meat when Boards of Guardians in England were not allowed to do so?
§ MR. TREVELYANsaid, he had the information for which the hon. Member had asked. He had not been able, in the time, to ask any question about policy. In the majority of Poor Law Unions in which pleuro-pneumonia occurred, the Boards of Guardians sold for human food the carcases of cattle compulsorily slaughtered for that disease, provided that their Veterinary Inspector pronounces the carcases to be fit for human food. The Guardians were authorized by Section 30 of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, to sell carcases of animals slaughtered by their order. He was informed that in the year 1883 there were about 1,000 carcases thus sold at an average price of about £5 10s.