THE LEGAL POSITION. 19 



possibility be considered necessary. In small districts the 

 whole thing is a farce. The borough surveyor or some 

 other official who knows nothing about it is appointed 

 examiner. One gentleman holding such an appointment 

 told me that the salary was nil, and that the service 

 rendered was equivalent to the salary. In another instance, 

 after being furnished with monthly returns from the 

 examiner, all carried out to two places of decimals, a 

 question was raised respecting the apparatus. On inspec- 

 tion, it was found to be covered with rust, the cord on the 

 governor broken, taps set hard from corrosion, and evidently 

 undisturbed and unused for months, not to say years. 

 Further inquiry elicited the fact that the " official tests " 

 were taken with a cheap pocket quantity indicator, which, 

 with a fine show of getting a fair average result, was applied, 

 without notice, to any public lamp in the district. By this 

 means, the examiner got fair samples of the bulk, which he 

 considered could not be depended upon at the photometer 

 room. If the testing apparatus is required at all, a simple 

 appliance, such as an approved variety of the jet photometer, 

 would answer every purpose in a country town. 



The Alkali, etc., Act, which, unlike the Acts already 

 referred to, applies to all alike, whether statutory or non- 

 statutory, involves an unjustly heavy tax on a small maker. 

 Before one can make sulphate of ammonia there is a tax of 

 ^3, os 5d. per annum to be paid. The nominal amount 

 is ^3, but it must be transmitted to London by money 

 order, cash or cheques not being accepted. There is 

 no reason why it should not be payable to the local tax 

 collector, like other taxes ; but by means of this ingenious 

 little shuffle the Government secure ^3, os. 5d. for a tax of 

 ^3. The tax is all very well for companies making a profit 

 of some hundreds a year on the sale of sulphate, but a 



