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A. Simply because they kill their own cattle. The farmer is bound by his contract to slaughter every beast that comes there, but if the owner says I want to kill it myself, he gets leave to do so.
Q-The owners do slaughter them themselves then?
A.-Mostly. The farmer doesn't interfere. He gets the same money and doesn't have to pay the butcher.
Q. Do you refuse many cattle as unfit for food?
Mr. Francis.-What percentage would you say?
A. It depends a good deal. Would it not be better if you put down these im- portant points on paper and I could tell you correctly?
Mr. Osborne.-Do you know what becomes of the cattle that are rejected ?
A.—I am afraid that they take a good many of them over to Kowloon and slaughter them there amongst the hills and then bring them back as beef.
Dr. Hartigan. What is supposed to become of the beast when you turn him away from the Depôt ?
A. They are supposed to be taken out of the Colony.
Mr. Osborne. Are they actually put on to a junk?
A. Sometimes the Inspector sees them put on a junk.
Dr. Hartigan. Who knows nothing about the junk I
A. We know nothing of them after that.
Mr. Osborne. Why are they rejected-diseased?
suppose ?
A. Not necessarily. They may be too emaciated.
Q--These cattle could be fed up on the New Territory?
A.--Yes.
Dr. Hartigan. Has a doctor to go and say they are unfit for human food? A.-That is part of my duty.
Mr. Francis. I think both these butchers in their evidence said that the rejection of cattle adds considerably to the price of meat. Do you think it has that effect?
A. Not the slightest.
Q.--Suppose a man brings down 100 head of cattle at a certain expense and say 25 of them are rejected and have to be sent back or otherwise disposed of, that would certainly increase the cost?
A. He knows his chances before he starts just as you would buy a lottery ticket. Mr. Maitland. The fact of these two men having a monopoly, will have a good deal to do with the raising of the prices?
A.-There are some very funny things in regard to that. Last year I think the Military contract was 72 cents per pound, yet they charge us in the Market 14 or 15
cents.
Mr. Francis.-What difference would taking a quantity make between the whole- sale and retail ?
A.-Not all that difference. The Military get the whole carcase for 7 or 8 cents per b. and you have to pay 10 cents for your soup meat which is the cheapest ment of all.
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