Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 340, 22 January 1861, Page 2

Correspondence.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, To the Editor of the Colonist.

Sib—ln to-day s (16 January) Examiner, under the article headed " Weights and Measures," I read, " We have been informed by the Inspector of Weights and Measures, who, it appears, has been repeatedly asked why bread is still delivered short of its presumed weight ?" and, "It would perhaps be as well if families provided themselves with stamped weights and measures, they could iustantly detect any attempted fraud." Had the law, as it ought to have done, gone a I little further, and made it compulsory to sell with stamped scales as well as weights, the public would have some protection ; as it is, that part of the law, as regards selling by weight, is simply absurd. No principle of weighing is true or just, unless by the suspended b»am and suspended scales ; at all the Queen's warehouses, docks, legal quays, wharfs, &c, (in England at least) no other principle is used. The newly invented and patented weighing machines for heavy goods, I admit, are handy and save labor ; but being on the steelyard principle, which takes a large turning weight to move it, unless in a perfectly horizontal * position, are all illegal (I mean in England). The simplest plan is the truest, and requires no regulating screw. Some people, I find, fancy that all " patent" articles of this kind are just, or the law would not patent them. Nothing can be more erroneous. I have hinted that the beam-and-scale for heavy goods requires more labor; but this is greatly abridged by a lever, with a hook at the short end, suspended over that arm of the beam from which the weight's scale is suspended: this allows the other scale to be loaded and unloaded with great ease. But with regard to the article referred to, I can only regret the Inspector "has been repeatedly asked why," &c. If people will buy new bread, or bread and water, that is their affair. In England, the legal way of ascertaining the weight of bread is, after it shall hare been baked twenty-four hours, and the baker is bound, whether required by the buyer or not, to weigh it on delivery, and if found to be short weight he adds a make-weight, cut from another loaf kept at hand for the purpose. I can but admire the concluding naive remark of the article. It would be better I think if the j law, for the making of which we pay, for our protection was made more effective and just between man and man, and not be compelled to adopt expensive steps und endless trouble to secure that which is our right. The remark is really too good. I can only fancy Mr. Boniface with a serious countenance, saying, " I tell you what, young fellow, before the next time you bring your beer back and tell me that I gave you short measure, I shall request you to bring your father's stamped measure with you;" or Mr. Retail, " I don't care what your mother says about it, you.must have ate the sugar, my boy ; I can't give any more after it went out of my shop, your mother must in future send stamped weights, and then there can be no mistake." Until a better method of weighing is compulsory, stamped weights and Inspector amount to very little. That's as plain as A. B. C. !