356 MISCELLANEOUS 



inquire into the desirability of the adoption of an uniform 

 system of weights and measures, either for (1) the United 

 Kingdom, or (2) for any part of the Kingdom, and the system 

 upon which such weights and measures should be based. 

 This Committee elected Mr. Samuel Kidner as Chairman ; 

 they examined a number of witnesses, and interviewed the 

 Deputy- Warden of the Standards, who explained the methods 

 of that Department. This Committee reported in October 

 and concluded with the following recommendations : 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



(a) That the present legal standard pound be the unit of 

 weight, and that the existing legal cental of 100 Ib. be substituted 

 for the 1121b. hundredweight; twenty such centals to be the 

 ton of 2000 Ib. 



(6) that transactions for sales or purchases of agricultural 

 produce and requisites other than liquids, but including milk 

 sold wholesale, shall be by weight under this standard and system. 



(c) That all official quotations shall be given on the basis of 

 the pound and cental, and that the Press be urged to adopt the 

 same basis for all market quotations. 



(d) That Section 8 of the Corn Returns Act, 1882, be repealed, 

 and that the tithe average be adjusted in future upon the cental 

 basis. (This Section 8 is printed below.) 



(e) That a provisional period of two years be allowed before 

 the new system shall be compulsory, after which all contracts 

 under any other standards shall be unenforceable except for 

 foreign trading. 



SAML. KIDNER, 



Chairman. 



SECTION 8 OF CORN RETURNS ACT, 1882. 



In the weekly summary of quantities and prices each sort of 

 British corn shall be computed with reference to the Imperial 

 bushel. An inspector of corn returns shall convert into such 

 Imperial bushel all returns made to him in any other measure 

 or by weight or by a weighed measure, and in the case of weight 

 or weighed measure shall convert the same at the rate of sixty 

 Imperial pounds for every bushel of wheat, fifty Imperial pounds 

 for every bushel of barley, and thirty -nine Imperial pounds for 

 every bushel of oats. 



This report was sent down to local Chambers and came up 

 for adoption in December, 1911, when it was generally 

 approved, the motion being in fact carried unanimously, 

 though two Chambers had objected to the report. 



