The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-01 00:00:00

Abatto'rs for the Metropolis.

The corporation of London have now under con-
sideration a scheme for erecting, at an estimated ex-
pense of £36,550, a number of additional slaughter-
houses at the Metropolitan Cattle-market, with all
the necessary conveniences, and with the ultimate
object of connecting them by railway with the new
Meat and Poultry Market which the city authorities
are now erecting in Smithfield. The subject has
been investigated by their Markets Committee, who
have made a report upon it to the Court of Com-
mon Council, and embodying the results of a visit
made by the chairman (Mr. Rudkin) and the city
architect to the abattoirs in Paris, Edinburgh, and at
Liverpool. Their attention has been directed to cer-
tain provisions in the Building Act, under the opera-
tion of which many of the present slaughterhouses in
the metropolis will in the year 1874 cease to exist.
They have also had under consideration the provi-
sions of the Newgate-market Abolition Act, under
which the various slaughterhouses in the vicinity of
that market will, in all probability, be removed ;
and, having regard to the strong increasing
feeling, not only on the part of the Government
and the Legislature, but also of the public at large,
that every possible means should be adopted to
prevent, as far as practicable, the driving of
cattle through the streets of the metropolis, they
are of opinion that it is high.ly desirable that
additional slaughterhouses should be erected at
the Metropolitan Cattle-market. The necessity
for such an arrangement, as a preventive mea-
sure, has been impressed upon the civic authorities
by circumstances arising out of the cattle plague.
The site that has commended itself to them for the
purpose is a piece of ground, about eight acres in
extent, on the east side of the market contiguous to
the Great Northern Railway, and sufficient for 55
slaughterhouses ; but the city architect, who has
prepared the necessary plans and estimates, only
recommends the immediate erection of 22, with all
the necessary appurtenances, and the construction
of a wharf and other works with a view to their
future communication with the Great Northern
line, whenever that shall be agreed upon by the
corporation and the company. lie has also sub-
mitted to the committee a small general plan of Lon-
don and its suburbs, with the site of the existing
market at Islington, and all the various lines
of railway round or through the metropolis, show-
ing clearly that convenient communication could
readily be made with the market and abattoirs
and the country generally, as well as the metropolis
itself. When in Paris he and the chairman of the
committee inspected the old abattoirs, and also a
very large new one, partly erected and in use, and
partly in progress, which when complete, they say,
will supply the whole of the French metropolis,
and consequently supplant all others. It is de-
signed after a plan similar to that of the old
abattoirs, and neither care nor expense has been
spared to render it perfect. Various other abat-
toirs in different cities and towns of the Continent
have also been built, following generally, in
character and arrangement, those of Paris, but the
city architect considers those in Edinburgh the most
perfect, though of course on a much smaller scale
than anything of the kind required in London. For
the estimated outlay of £36,550 the architect calcu-
lates that an annual revenue of about £1,680 would
probably be derived by the corporation from the
slaughterhouses proposed to be erected in conjunc-
tion with the Metropolitan Cattle-market. The
proposal has yet to be confirmed by the Court of
Common Council, but, having regard to the ad-
vantages likely to accrue from it in practice in a
sanitary point of view, and especially as tending to
the cessation of cattle driving through the public
streets, there can be little doubt that it will receive
a favourable consideration from them.

HORRIBLE 2REATMENT OF EUROPEANS BY

SAVAGES.

The Foreign Office has received a despatch from
Sir IL St. George Ord, the Governor-General of
Penang, detailing the result of an expedition to the
Nicobar Islands to rescue some European women
and children captured by the natives, and to punish
them for the numerous murders of crews of vessels
which endeavoured to trade with the natives. The
despatch, which is very voluminous, is addressed to
his Grace the Duke of Buckingham, and is dated
" Government House, Penang, Aug. 20, 1867."
It appears that the last act of atrocity was com-
mitted on a Liverpool merchant vessel called
the Futtay slamtradingby to Nicobar Islands,
when she
w Islam,
attacked the natives, and
21 out of 21 of her crew were murdered.
This and many other massacres led to a determina-
tion on the part of the governor to punish the
natives, but the Nicobar Islands being just without
the limits of the China station, the senior naval
officer did not feel justified in permitting one of her
Majesty's ships to proceed on a duty beyond its
limits. Subsequently the Government of India
acquiesced, but prior to an expedition being sent the
governor instructed Captain Bedingfield, R.N., in
command of H.M.S. Wasp, to proceed to the coast,
accompanied with proper interpreters, to make in-
quiries respecting the reported atrocities. That
officer proceeded on his mission, and learnt
beyond doubt that the reports of the murders
were correct; and, further, that white women and
children were held in captivity by the natives, and
were exposed to the greatest brutality. The
governor thereupon resolved on despatching her
Majesty's ships Satellite and Wasp to endeavour to
rescue any captives and punish the perpetrators of
the outrages, and to take such steps as would im-
press upon the natives generally the danger of con-
tinuing their piratical attacks. The despatch thus
proceeds :
" The ships returned to Penang about ten days
since, and the substance of the reports, which will
be sent in detail to the Admiralty, is as follows :
They first visited the island of Great Nicobar, where
they discovered ample evidence of the islanders
having been the authors of the attack on the Futtay
Islam. . . No natives were seen, and no communica-
' tion could be held with them. The village in which
these relics and those of other ill-fated vessels
were found was burned to the ground, and a
placard stating why their town had been burnt was
affixed to the trees for the information of the natives.
The expedition then visited the central group, and
experienced the greatest difficulty in communicating
with the natives, although promised that if they
gave up any captives they should not be twalezited.
They were too conscious of their misdeeds to be
willing to trust themselves in the power of the
ship. One of the natives, however, who was in
the expedition ascertained beyond a doubt that a
white woman and her two children had been a few
months before alive on the island. The unhappy
lady is supposed to have been the wife of some per-
son on board one of the ships seized by the savages
about two years since. She gave birth to a child
almost immediately after her capture, and after
suffering the most terrible indignities, on its becom-
ing known that she had been seen by the merchant
captain before alluded to, it was considered dan-
gerous to allow her to live. After an ineffectual
attempt to poison her and the two
,children, they
were mercifully released from further suffering by
being taken into the jungle and knocked on the head.
rhe principal actor in this tragedy evaded capture
and got away to the island of Katcheive, where,
from its inaccessible character, he was safe from pur-
suit, He is said to have carried with him a white