806 



Weights and Measures [no. 4, new series, 



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, who found on re-weighment 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 the Candy is so 

 many Seers, and the Seer so many Rupees, but what 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 mention 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 Govern- 

 ment declined 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- 



* Yide page 194. 



