206 Weights a?id Measures [xo, 4, newseries, 
this, was of vital importance, and investigations were made by 
Government, in the course of which it was discovered that in one 
District, the official " Price Returns" had been 20 per cent, in error 
for some years, in consequence of the grain dealers having altered 
the capacity of their Measures. In the second case, a merchant at 
a seaport town, sold a certain number of " candies" of copper to a 
captain of a vessel, nho found on re-weigament for sale at Madras, 
that the weight was short. The seller was able to show that he 
sold by the Candy where he resided, and if the dispute had not 
been settled by an amicable arrangement, no official authority 
could have decided the question, inasmuch as ^he Candy is so 
many Seers, and the Seer so many Rupees, 'hM\^u'hat Rupee no one 
can tell : certainly not the present one, which is some grains hea- 
vier than the Rupees of the Native mints, current when the Weights 
were originally established. In the third case, a long correspon- 
dence took place in the Military Department, in consequence of a 
dispute as to whether a regiment of Sepoys had not overdrawn 
their rations ; it being asserted that the Seer-measure of the town 
where they were quartered, was too large. The Government re- 
quested the opinion of the Board of Revenue, but the only answer 
they could give, was that the Native " Seer" differed in different 
places, at the option of the bazaar-men, and that as the 
Government in their Proclamation had made no mentio?i of a 
Seer for use *' in Government transactions," there was no 
official definition of such a Measure. In the fourth case, 
the Board of Revenue at Madras were informed that Mea- 
sures of Capacity were in use in the Town, bearing the Govern- 
ment stamp, and yet differing in capacity from the content prescrib- 
ed by the Proclamation mentioned in another para, of this Paper.* 
These Measures were examined, and found to be 4 per cent, 
in error, but the Stamping Department asserted that they were 
in accordance with an old Standard in their Office, and the Govem- 
jnent declii;^ed even to prohibit their Seal being affixed to Measures 
openly at variance with their own Proclamation. All these in- 
stances occurred within three or four years, and similar cases hap- 
* Tide page 191. 
