§ DR. CLARK (Caithness)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he is aware that the Commissioners of the Burgh of Thurso have purchased at considerable cost a site for a public slaughter-house, in order to remedy the insanitary state of things that presently exists in connection with private slaughter-houses; and will he explain why the Board of Supervision is preventing the public slaughter-house from being erected, although the Commissioners unanimously consider the site to be most suitable?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANA Petition having been lodged with the Board of Supervision in terms of Section 30 of the Public Health Act, against the resolution of the Local Authority to permit slaughtering in the building in question, the Board caused inquiry to be made on the spot by their Inspecting Officer, and, on his Report, which set forth that the site was in the near neighbourhood of inhabited houses, they held that the consent of the Local Authority ought not to have been given. On the request of the Local Authority, they subsequently re-considered the matter, but were unable to reach another conclusion. The obvious policy of the section in question is to discourage slaughtering within populated areas, and the Board, except in very special circumstances, have uniformly given effect to that policy.