WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 4

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

THE NEW REGULATIONS. CHRISTCHURCH TRADERS' OBJECTIONS. The proposedn ew regulations relating to weights and measures were discussed at a meeting of the Master Grocers' Association—a section of the Canterbury Employers' Association—and as a result of the drastic changes contemplated, the president. Mr. R. A. Wilkie, was instructed to interview the Labour Department authorities in Wellington. The regulation providing that certain commodities are to be sold by "net weight" will have far-reaching effects unless it is modified in some way. It is impossible, so it is asserted, to adjust scales so that they will weigh, separately, paper bags or wrapping paper. It is considered that if the regulation is insisted upon many expensive scales, costing from £50 to £70, wil be condemned as useless. The list of exemptions from the "net weight" regulation, while it includes dried dates and figs, does not include dried apricots, apples, sultanas, and currants, which all equally are subject to loss through evaporation. It is considered that not sufficient time will be allowed, before the regulations come into force, to enable traders to get rid of commodities packed in weights that are not standard weights under the regulations. The provision that honey is to be packed in packages in certain weights will operate harshly in the case of people who have large stocks of containers, but not capable of containing the weight prescribed by the regulations. Another provh?ion to which exception is taken is the fees prescribed for the inspection of scales and of weights. If this is done at the trader's place of business, the minimum fee for each pair of scales inspected and tested is 10/. In the case of a trader with, say, half a dozen scales, this charge is considered excessive. Generally it is considered that the new regulations, many of which have been taken from the British and the New South Wales regulations, proceed on the basis that every trader is a rogue and that the regulations are designed to abolish certain abuses which do not exist in the Dominion.