TIMBER LOADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 169, 18 July 1936, Page 12

TIMBER LOADS.

accuracy of meters. ■ ] RGTORUA PROSECUTION. FOREST DEPARTMENT'S SCALE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ROTORUA, this clay. A question of considerable interest to the timber trade was discussed in the Rotorua Magistrate's Court yesterday before Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., when the Main Highways inspector, Mr. D. M. Ford, proceeded against G. T. Lodge, contractor, of Rotorua, on a charge of exceeding the classification on the Mamakii° Hill Road, and also of having an insufficient license to cover his load. The inspector said that the lorry, owned by Lodge and carrying a load of green timber, when weighed by means of loadaineters, showed an overall weight of seven tons, whereas the road limit was GJ tons. The question debated was whether loadaineters, a device generally used by traffic inspectors for the weighing of heavy vehicles on the road, could be regarded as accurate. Mr. K. Roe, who appeared for Lodge, closely questioned the inspector regarding his computations, and suggested to the magistrate that if the weighing had not been carried out ona level ground, or if there had been stones or other irregularities under the base of the loadameter, an error might have occurred in the weighing. Care in Weighing. The inspector, in reply, said that he was always most careful in carrying out weighing operations, and had taken particular care to ensure that the lorry was weighed on level ground. Mr. Roe saicl that the timber industry in the district was now assuming such largo proportions that the method of weighing loads of green timber was of first importance. The State Forest Department was now carting a considerable quantity of timber in the district, and as a guide to its carriers had drawn up a scale showing the weights of the various classes of timber, according to the length loaded. He suggested that, using this scale as a guide, Lodge was entitled to the benefit of the doubt. The magistrate said that the accuracy of loadameters had been discussed on a number of occasions, and they had always been found to be accurate. His experience was that they usually weighed slightly lighter than weighbridges. He diet* not think that counsel could bring a scale of computations or specialised, evidence against accurate recordings taken by means of these devices. So far as the State Forest Department's scale was concerned, he thought that if the Department desired that this should be generally adopted it should co-operate to that end with the Main Highways Board.