MarHEews v Foeerrr

High Court of Australia|1926-07-01|Before: Ricu J, Srarke J, Gavan Duffy J, Isaacs J, Campbell J, On J

Ricu J. I agree that the appeal should be dismissed. H.C. oF A. 1925.

Srarke J. I also agree that the appeal should be dismissed. a JoMNA

'Solicitor for the appellant, W. P. Blackmore, Broken Hill, by . peann

BL. (HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.) [ATHEWS AND ANOTHER . . . . Apperanrs; ip Meat' JONES LIMITED) . | |. | Responpenr.

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

ira - Meat inspection - Bringing "carcase or any portion of carcase" into H.C, or A. _ certain area - Whether sausages portion of carcase - Neweastle District Abattoir 1996, and Sale-yards Act 1912 (N.S.W.) (No. 49), sec. 19. RE

See. 19 of the Newcastle District Abattoir and Sale-yards Act 1912 (N.S.W.) S¥PNE¥s | Provides that "the earease or any portion of the carcase" of any animal 227. 30.

slaughtered outside a certain area shall not be brought into that area except MELpourNE, under certain conditions. May 27.

Held, by Knox C.J. and Gavan Duffy J. (Isaacs J. dissenting), that the fact Knox C3, that sausages, the composition of which was unknown except that they were ang _ manufactured from either pork or beef or both from animals slaughtered outside

_ the area, had been brought into the area without compliance with the

_ conditions stated in the section, did not constitute the offence of bringing into

_ the area portion of a carcase or carcases without compliance with those

Decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Campbell J.) : Ex parte Poggitt Jones Lid., (1925) 43 N.S.W.W.N. 8, affirmed.

At the Court of Petty Sessions at Newcastle an information was heard whereby Henry Ernest John Mathews, an officer of the Newcastle District Abattoir Board, charged that Foggitt Jones Ltd. did on 15th October 1925 "cause to be brought into the district of the Newcastle District Abattoir Board s. . . sausages

and saveloys for human consumption within the said district without

compliance in respect of the said portion of the said carcase or carcases with the conditions set out in sec. 19 of the Newcastle

District Abattoir and Sale-yards Act 1912, that is to say, that the

said portion of the said carcase or carcases was not accompanied by a certificate signed by an inspector of slaughtering duly appointed and approved by the Board of Health that at the time of slaughtering

the said carcase or portion thereof was duly inspected and free -

from disease and without causing the said portion to be taken to the abattoir appointed under the said Act or to some place appointed by the said Board for inspection by the inspector of the said Board."

The evidence given as to the offence having been committed was that of the informant, who said that on 15th October 1925 he went to the defendant's business premises in Newcastle, where he saw the defendant's manager. The evidence then continued : - 'I asked him " (the manager) "if he had received any consignment of small goods from Maitland that day. He said: ' Yes.' I asked him if it was accompanied by an inspector's certificate. I viewed the consignment. He took me to it and showed it tome. . . . I asked him if it was accompanied by an inspector's certificate that it was inspected during slaughter. I then asked him if these goods were manufactured from pork and beef carcases slaughtered at their Maitland works; and he replied: 'Yes.' . . . Their Maitland works are outside the abattoir district and twenty miles from Newcastle. . . . I saw some of the consignment of saveloys and sausages that I saw sold at the counter."

The Magistrate convicted the defendant, and imposed a fine of 20s. with £2 2s. costs.

An order nisi for prohibition taken out by the defendant was made absolute by Campbell J.: Ex parte Foggitt Jones Ltd. (1).

From that decision the informant and the Newcastle District H- ©. oF A.

ttoir Board now, by special leave, appealed to the High Court. ee Other facts are stated in the judgments hereunder. MarHEws Fooorrr

ssenden K.C. (with him Halse Rogers), for the appellants. On J°N®s Lt. literal meaning of sec. 19 of the Newcastle District Abattoir and ards Act 1912 (N.S.W.) this case comes within it, and there is o reason for restricting its meaning. The Meat Industry Act 1915 (N.S.W.), an Act in pari materia, makes it clear that the intention f the Legislature was to take control of every portion of an animal ghtered for human consumption. The fact that to give a

eral meaning to the words of the section may lead to absurdities is not a reason for restricting the meaning (see Jones v. Metropolitan Industry Board (1); Smallbone v. Fawcett, Preston & Co. (2) ).

K.C. (with him Dare), for the respondent. A sausage as uch is not portion of a carcase. The statute was not enacted as with respect to health or pure food. It was intended to apply wholesale dealing with carcases and parts of carcases, and not to goods. There is other legislation which amply protects the

: - *(1) The carcase or any portion of the carcase of any slaughtered outside the district shall not be brought into e district for human consumption within the district, except under e following conditions : (a) The carcase or portion of the carcase

(1925) 37 C.L.R. 252, (8) (1921) 2 A.C, 384, at p. 388. (2) (1922) 2 K.B, 638, (4) (1871) LR. 6 GP, 369.

shall be accompanied by a certificate, signed by an inspector of slaughtering duly appointed and approved by the Board of Health, that at the time of slaughtering, the said carcase or portion thereof was duly inspected and was free from disease."

The respondent slaughtered animals at Maitland, outside the Newcastle District, under the supervision of a government inspector, and the informant admitted that all the meat so slaughtered was free from disease and perfectly fit for human consumption. Part of the business carried on by the respondent at Maitland was the manufacturing of sausages and saveloys from pork and beef carcases there slaughtered; but the evidence does not disclose in what proportion the pork and beef were mixed in the sausages and saveloys, nor are we told what wrappers were used, nor what other materials, if any, were mixed with the pork and beef. The respondent has a shop in the Newcastle District, and to that shop it sent meat slaughtered at Maitland and portion of the sausages manufactured there. With respect to the meat, it obtained the certificate prescribed by the sub-section, but no certificate accompanied the sausages. The information before the Court of Petty Sessions at Newcastle treated the sausages as "' portion of a carcase or carcases " within the meaning of sec. 19 (1); and the Magistrate held that they were in fact such a portion, and convicted the respondent. The respondent appealed, and Campbell J., sitting in Chambers, held that the Magistrate was wrong and made absolute an order nisi for prohibition. The learned Judge thought that it was impossible to say that a sausage, the composition of which was unknown except that it contained either pork or beef or both, was as an integer a portion of a carcase. We are of the same opinion. The question as to whether the wrapper of a sausage or any part of its meaty contents is a portion of a carcase within the meaning of the sub-section did not arise for decision and was not decided. Whether it can be so may be left for decision when the occasion arises.

Isaacs J. This case, as instituted and conducted throughout, is a test case involving serious consequences, affecting not merely the health but even the lives of a very large portion of the population of the State of New South Wales. Indeed, it concerns the relevant.

ww for the whole State except the metropolis (see Local Government 11919 (N.S.W.), secs. 460, 464).

am not able to dispose of it on any technical distinction between wisage and the component parts of a sausage. Nor do I agree he question of the nature of the contents did not arise. One the steps - and a necessary step - in the contending arguments on both sides was to consider whether the mere envelopment of comminuted meat: in an intestine so changed the essential character the meat that it ceased to be a portion of the carcase that hed it. To my mind that is an inescapable question. What is a sausage consists of comminuted meat which, for convenience, js enclosed in a portion of an animal's intestine. If there were a alty for bringing in an intestine or any portion of an intestine, wild be unable to exonerate a defendant who brought it in as external envelope of a sausage. If the internal portion of the ge is itself before envelopment portion of a carcase, I utterly to see how the mere fact that it is covered with an intestine nakes it cease to be what it was immediately before it was covered. ts identity remains, just as much as the identity of a man remains er he is called a soldier in uniform, a barrister in robes or a er in flannels. The sausages, in the present case, were jitted by the respondent's manager to have been manufactured pork and beef carcases slaughtered at their Maitland works. that there is no question and never was any question as to the e of the contents of the sausages. Campbell J., from whom appeal immediately comes, did not question that fact. He (1): " Here it may be conceded that part of the material in the and saveloys was originally part of a carcase of an animal

it becomes something else. I am quite unable to accept magical chrysalis-and-butterfly analogy. It goes without _ Saying that no one in his senses could contend that the sausage in sausage form ever was or could be a portion of a carcase. That would be ridiculous : sausages are essentially a manufactured article. only contention in reason could be whether the internal material

of which a sausage is composed was, immediately before the saus was complete, and still remains after completion, portion of ae carcase. For all practical purposes, for all the dangers to human - life sought to be guarded against, the meat covered or uncovered by an intestine is the same. There is no alteration mechanical or chemical. Whether the meat in that comminuted form is or not portion of the carcase is the one real question - apart from legal objections to the by-laws - which these proceedings present. In my opinion, and with deference, it is the duty of this Court in the public interest to answer that question one way or the other. On that basis I proceed to deal with this appeal for what my assistance may be worth, though in the circumstances my opinion can have no determinative effect. i The parties to this appeal are substantially the Newcastle District

Abattoir Board as appellant and a limited company called Foggitt / Jones Ltd. as respondent. The Board represents the whole of the residents within a district having as its centre the Newcastle Post Office with a radius of 14 miles from the Post Office. In 1912 the Parliament of New South Wales passed an Act called the Newcastle District Abattoir and Sale-yards Act 1912 which, with amendments immaterial to this case, is still in force. The then existing law was apparently considered insufficient to safeguard the public of that district from the known dangers, mostly insidious and, if realized, nearly always incurable, that arise from the consumption of diseased or unwholesome meat. The Act is, in effect, a provision for local _ self-protection by the people of the district constituted as a distinct : entity for that purpose. It provides for a Board, the appellant, Z for a public abattoir, for the appointment of officers, for the raising

of rates locally to pay for the expense of self-protection, and makes what seems to me ample provision, so far as relates to meat from

animals slaughtered in the district, for securing the reasonable safety of the public from such scourges of humanity as cancer, - tuberculosis and anthrax, as well as minor, but sufficiently serious, inflictions such as ptomaine poisoning. But obviously all this trouble

and care and expense would be futile if the gates were left wide

open for the entry from outside the district of meat that was not

arly subjected to the local supervision of the Board. Conse- ily a section was inserted in the Act to meet this position, and venture to think its terms are of the most comprehensive nature, nd in their inherent extensive meaning cover such articles as are in question. Before construing them independently, I have to to the weighty confirmation of the extensive general under- ding of the critical words which is given by the chief public

jorities of New South Wales practically acquainted with the ibject matter, and the way in which the words are understood in this State in relation to that subject matter. I refer to the local oard who framed the by-laws, the Board of Health who supported em, the Executive Government of New South Wales who approved them, and the two Houses of Parliament who, having the by-laws

formidable mass of official and parliamentary testimony as to the meaning of the words, pointing to their general acceptation in this connection and leading to public safety, is to my mind much ore weighty than the conjectural refinements relied on by learned for the respondent supported by no evidence whatever ind leading to public danger. I am not able to accept the invitation teject, as erroneous to the point of absurdity, the full meaning tributed to the words by the official sources referred to. Official erpretation does not, of course, bind the Court; but in a matter this nature it is difficult for Judges, without the clearest and convincing evidence, to override those charged with the ponsibility of guarding the public health and declare them to be ant of the true meaning of the terms of the subject they are inistering, and as to Parliament of its own language. In this , however, as I regard the matter, ordinary judicial interpretation, ly with the aid of the special rule of construction to which refer, shows that the official view of the words of the section is perfectly correct. Sec. 19 prohibits the bringing in for human sumption of " the carcase or any portion of the carcase " of any slaughtered outside the district, except on two conditions. e two conditions are these : - First, there must accompany the e or portion of the carcase " that is brought in, a certificate

of slaughtering it was duly inspected and free from disease. Next, what is brought in must be taken to the local abattoir or some place appointed by the Board for inspection by the Board's inspector, and a fee must be paid. The reasons for the conditions are plain. The first relates to the time of slaughtering and refers to diseases then existing, and the persons whose opinion is trusted are persons representing the New South Wales Board of Health. The certificate required must cover all the meat brought in, and not possibly only some of it with an admixture of other meat which would contaminate it. The second condition provides against meat which, originally free from disease, has, by lapse of time or exposure to flies or other influences, since become putrid or otherwise unwholesome. The Board has certain powers of relaxation which Parliament thought sufficient consistently with safety. The absolute necessity of the - two mentioned precautions, unless specially relaxed, evidently - impressed itself on the mind of the Legislature, as it must on that ; of everyone else. And so stringently did Parliament frame its : section that, besides using the broad and comprehensive terms I _ have stated, it threw the whole burden of proving compliance with these conditions on the person bringing in outside meat, and ; provided for a penalty in case of contravention and for the destruction of any carcase or portion of a carcase which on inspection appears at that moment to be diseased or unwholesome. No possible doubt can exist that, if a whole undivided carcase is brought in, it is y

within the section. If half a carcase, or a head or limb or any organ or any of the ordinary subdivisions usually purchased for - human food, were brought in, I suppose no one would dispute that each of these subdivisions would answer the description "any portion" of the carcase. No matter what other precautions have been taken or are said to have been taken, the Act must be complied with, and no Court can venture to absolve anyone from obedience. The certificate is necessary as a guarantee as to the time of slaughter- ing. The inspection is necessary as to what has happened since. But it is said for the company that, if only the whole carcase is cut up into portions so small that it is converted into what is known as sausage-meat, and especially if a covering skin is put over it, there is then neither a carcase nor any portion of a carcase in -

ence. That is to say, a carcase or part of a carcase may be cancerous or tuberculous or reeking with pleuro-pneumonia, or it be putrid, so that it would be instantly rejected if any attempt e made to bring it into the district, but, nevertheless, if only it cut up very fine and passed through a sausage machine - and 'lly mixed with aromatic flavouring which may easily conceal eness - and covered with the usual skin envelope, then, so as the Act is concerned, it may be brought into the district for consumption free of challenge and offered to unsuspecting hasers as a perfectly lawful article of commerce.

The Board's contention is rested on a very clear and intelligible It is that the words of the Act "the carcase or any portion the carcase," literally read, cover every scrap of the carcase, and e is, not only no reason to abridge that meaning, but there is y reason to preserve it to the full. '' Any portion " is certainly expression which applies primarily and naturally to a portion of any size whatever. The company's contention, in order to eed, must call in aid something in the context or in the nature of the subject matter to alter the literal meaning of the words any portion of the carcase." As to context, there is nothing whatever to aid the company's argument. A good deal of reliance placed on the hardship and inconvenience of having to submit ges to inspection, and especially at the abattoir, in view of their hance of deterioration and other interferences with the company's bu But these are miserable trifles compared with the risk 0 which the publie are exposed when such articles of food are sent into the open market for human consumption. Even if, as in the ent case, there is general inspection at Maitland of the company's itering operations, there was no guarantee that the sausages | question were free from later deterioration or contamination, On their entry into the Newcastle District they may, for all that the e shows, have, from causes subsequent to Maitland inspection, me extremely objectionable. But, indeed, all that is nothing the point except in mitigation of penalty. This case is to test e right to send in such food whatever its condition may be.

'The object the Act has in view is the prevention, so to speak, at ne known source of some well-known diseases more or less horrible.

H.C. or A. Science so far finds itself comparatively helpless at a later stage, ue and the people of the Newcastle District, with the authority of Marnews Parliament, are endeavouring at their own cost to avert the peril. The question then, broadly, is this: Are we to read down the primarily comprehensive words of sec. 19 so as to prohibit the introduction into the Newcastle District of even wholesome solid meat unless it is proved to be so in the way prescribed, and yet to permit the unchallenged introduction of the most deadly meat -

if only it be reduced, by the mere process of comminution, to the

form of sausages ? There is authoritative direction on the question of statutory

construction which, in my opinion, is wholly adverse to such an interpretation as the respondent desires. There is one in particular which, for its humanity and its harmonious agreement with present- day thought, I should be glad to see transcribed in substance in every Acts Interpretation Act. Such transcription would, I think, do much to discourage arguments better suited to an earlier age and tending to cut down the efforts of modern legislatures to cope with present-day evils. It is a passage which I have more than once quoted; and I venture to repeat it. In Butler (or Black) v. Fife Coal Co. (1) Lord Shaw says : - " The commanding principle in the construction of a statute passed to remedy the evils and to protect against the dangers which confront or threaten persons or classes of His Majesty's subjects is that, consistently with the actual language employed, the Act shall be interpreted in the sense favourable to making the remedy effective and the protection i secure. This principle is sound and undeniable." Lord Shaw, - apart from his own authority, could have pointed to prior judicial pronouncements, as, for instance, that of Lord Loreburn in Bist v. London and South-Western Railway Co. (2), justifying his statement of what he calls a "' commanding principle." I entirely accept that statement, and apply it here as I have done in other cases. So applying it, I can see no way of " making the remedy effective and the protection secure " except by leaving to the words of the section their full primary meaning. Accordingly, reading the words without any confirmation of my view beyond what is afforded by (1) (1912) A.C. 149, at pp. 178-179. (2) (1907) A.C. 209, at p. 211.

he guiding principle quoted, I hold that the words "any portion e carcase " include the flesh of the carcase or portion thereof

as the instant before; and I think the contrary argument, treats the result of comminution as if it were some instance al transformation, is entirely misplaced. There remains, ver, the powerful confirmation of my view to which I have The Magistrate also so held and convicted the company ;

Appeal dismissed with costs. licitors for the appellants, Harris, Wheeler & Williams,

At a glance

Court

Decision date

Before

Source

Judgment (58 paragraphs)

Parties