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in casks of all sizes, but mostly pipes. He had proposed that it 

 should be the decimal — 50 gallons. The casks had to be made 

 here as there were very few old ones coming in, and then people 

 could order -what size they liked. Ultimately every country would 

 have the decimal system. He thought it would be well to discuss 

 that question. 



Mr. Irvine was impressed with that only a few months ago by 

 a gentleman from Belgium who said to him — " We never buy by 

 the gallon, we sell by the hogshead, 47 gallons. If you put in 

 more you lose." No large importer, like Mr. Burgoyne, stipulated 

 that, but in a bonded store if a cask is over a certain size they 

 charge about Id. a week more. In shipping to a small purchaser 

 in the home market if you ship ten casks and they range from 63 

 to 75 gallons, he complains and says — "Why do you not keep to one 

 uniform cask '! " He (Mr. Irvine) believed that 50 gallons would 

 suit all nations. In Bordeaux 47 gallons was the rule; they sold 

 by that and not by weight. As to the freight charges he did not 

 see why they should insert 120 gallons. There were questions of 

 railway charges that required consideration by the Railways Com- 

 missioners who were preparing a new schedule, and the Conference 

 should not attempt, except as a recommendation, to interfere. 

 Some few months previous some casks were ofEered to him at 

 Lilydale, representing about 2,450 gallons, and the freight on them 

 to Great Western amounted to £5 os.; at the same time he got six 

 1,000-galloncasksatGeelong, and the freight cost him only £2 5s. 

 Consequently the freight charges on empty casks were absurd. If 

 one shipped from Sydney the empty casks were carried up the 

 Hunter River for nothing as the boats were glad to get them full 

 back, and he thought the Railway Department should have a 

 uniform rate and not make a difference between the new casks and 

 the old. He thought the other proposal. No. 6, they could leave 

 to the Government, as it would be interfering with the Tariff. He 

 had never seen casks running over 70 or 80 gallons; no one shipped 

 them home. He had shipped pipes but never would do so again, 

 as he had always had an accident with them. He would like to 

 see some gentleman engaged in the shipping trade draw attention 

 to the uniformity of casks. 



Mr. Williams said he thought the Conference was right in 

 making recommendations to the Railways Commissioners ; the 

 Board of Viticulture had done so. At present the minimum was 

 3s. if he got up a small cask of wine, but if he sent for two 

 cases of fruit, 80 lbs., he got it up for is. It was a handicap on 

 the wine industry, and he considered it was within the province of 

 this Conference to state to the commissioners that they thought 

 the industry suffered in consequence of the freights. 



Mr, Pounds said that if 200 gallons of wine were sent 130 

 miles it cost £1 4s. 8d., but if an equal quantity in bottles was sent 



