Journal of Agriculture. [ii July, 1910. 



Weights. 



The number of boxes detained on account of short weight was 610 out 

 of consignments representing 2.100, or equal to o.ii per cent., of the total 

 exports, as compared with 520 or 0.193 per cent, for the previous season 

 and 10,840 boxes or 2.24 per cent, for 1907-8. 



Upwards of 50,000 cases were weighed here. Three boxes are taken 

 out of each consignment, and when the weights are bare an additional 

 three are selected. The larger proportion is also taken from consignments 

 which prove irregular in weight. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the 

 Department, in intercepting butter short in weight, many complaints were 

 made in Great Britain regarding the unsatisfactory way in which butter 

 scaled at the other end. 



Dissatisfaction must continue until some alteration can be made either 

 in regard to the regulations on the subject here, or the method of purchasing 

 our butter at the other end. It is well known here that exception can be 

 taken only when the contents of a box fail to take up the beam at 56 lbs. 

 Needless to say, butter found below 56J lbs. cannot be depended upon to 

 turn out full weight at the London end, whilst all between that and 56 lbs. 

 are almost certain to be short. When butters weigh 56I lbs. no entry is 

 made on the certificate which has printed on it " Sample boxes weighed 

 and found correct." However, with the weights below ^(ii\ lbs. and not 

 under 56 lbs. the weight of each box is entered on the certificate. It was 

 thought that this would serve as an indication to purchasers in London as 

 to what the real weight was here prior to shipment. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the regulations provide that as long a.- 

 butter scales 56 lbs. prior to shipment no action is taken, the Home and 

 Foreign Produce Exchange Limited in London adopted the following 

 Rules of Arbitration in 1909 : — • 



Butter — Landed Sales. 

 General Rules for Weighing and Averaging. 



21. Packages containing net weight of 30 lbs. and under to be weighed to 5 lb. 



Packages containing net weight of more than 30 lbs. and up to 60 lbs. to be 

 Aveighed to 5 lb. 



Packages containing a net weight of more than 60 lbs. to be weighed up to i lb. 



Packages of irregular weights to be weighed gross and tare. 



IT,. Overweight on packages of uniform marked weights can neither be included 

 in the average nor charged for. Should any package taken in average prove to 

 be more than i lb. below the average short weight of the parcel, the loss will be 

 allowed and another package substituted in place thereof. 



26. Ten per cent, of the bulk to be weighed if required bv buyei or seller, Imt in 

 the case of hot weather not more than live per cent, to be taken. 



Australian and New Ze-Aland Butter .and Cheese. 

 Loss in W eight and Method of Weighing. 



[a) Bi/tter.^Bnttei shall be packed 565 lbs. per box, exclusive of paper, to cover 

 shrinkage, but shall be invoiced as 56 lbs. per box. Average loss shall be calcu- 

 lated on the basis of 565 lbs. per box at the time of shipment, or when averaged, 

 which shall be done not more than fourteen days prior to the date of shipment, 

 and the Government grader's certificate of weight attached to each invoice shall be 

 accepted as final. 



id) Butter and Cheese. — Should no Government grader's certificate of weight 

 be furnished with the other documents or produced for inspection on demand, the 

 goods shall be averaged within three business days after landing at the port of 

 discharge, or if the goods be landed before the buyer has sighted draft, and, or, 

 received invoice, then within three business days after such sighting or receipt ; the 

 cost of weighing 10 per cent, for the purpose of averaging shall be paid by the 

 seller, and the buyer shall be entitled to an allowance for short weight (if any). 



{e) When butter or cheese is so averaged at port of discharge the standard shall 

 l)e 56 lbs. per box for butter and marked weights for cheese. 



(/) The seller may be called upon for proof of original invoice weights. 



