UNFAIRLY PACKED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 10

UNFAIRLY PACKED

CHINAMEN'S CABBAGES ' Two Chinese gardeners of Waiwetu, Ling Hing and Sun Loo Lee, were charged in the Magistrate's Court to-day with packing vegetables for sole at the market in an unfair manner. They pleaded not guilty. Mi". A. Dicker, fruit inspector, said that on 24th July he made an inspection at Messrs. Market Gardeners, Ltd., and found that sacks of cabbages sent in by the defendants . for sale were "topped off." The cabbages exposed to view at the top of the sacks were by no means a fair or honest indication of the contents. "The j way the vegetables were packed," added Mr. Dicker, "left no doubt in my mind that the Chinamen were guilty of misrepresentation and the knowledge that the purchaser would place his reliance on < the top layer and bid up to the value of the cabbages exposed to view." Two witnesses gave evidence that from a commercial point of view the cabbages, in their opinion, were worthless. . Mr. G. Findlay, who acted for the defendants, said vt was admitted that the cabbages on the top were bigger than some of the others in the sacks, but that- was done solely for the purpose of more secure packing. Both defendants had been market gardeners at the Hutt for some years, and had always packed vegetables in the same way. They had received no complaints either from purchasers of then 1 vegetables or the market authorities, and if on this occasion they had committed a breach of the regulations they had certainly done so unwittingly. Mr. E. Page, S.M., said it appeared clear that the regulations had .not been, complied with. "There has been a ber of cases of this nature," he added, "and gardeners must know' that sacks must be packed fairly, so that the top layers of the goods give. a fair indication of the size, maturity, and condition of the whole contents." Each of the defendants was fined £5.