Sale of Com hij Wei'jhf. 
723 
sometimes is, that is measure and -weight. The practice in Norfolk, for 
instance, is sometimes to advertise corn for sale of a certain measure, 
although it is subsequently sold by weight. . , „ 
Q. 129. In your opinion it would be very desirable to have all corn sold 
by -weight ratheV than by measure and weight ? 
A. My opinion, taken as I have already suggested it should be, is that it 
would be desirable to have it sold entirely by weight. 
Q. ISO. I suppose you will admit that in a given district there is not 
much difficulty, but that when you come to have more extensive dealings, for 
example, Scotland with England, then all these different weights come to be 
a very serious matter ? . ^ , , , t 
A. Very serious : but I am sure that no legislation, even if any should be 
attempted, 'would be successful unless it dealt with the whole of the United 
Kingdom. 
Q. 131. But there would be a good deal of difficulty, would there not, 
attending a rapid change in the law ? 
A. I think this question needs discussion, and discus.sion might prepare 
the way for legislation. Farmers and dealers generally have expressed an 
opinion in fa'vour of weight, an opinion which the Board of Trade 
listened to when they legalised the cental in 1879 ; but the bulk of the 
people at large — as shopkeepers, who are an important class in the considera- 
tion of this question— do not yet quite understand the difference between 
measuring and weighing. The matter wants ventilating and discussing. 
As to the carrying out of uniformity, Mr. Chaney had 
previously remarked (Q. 54) that if the legislature required all 
I com to be sold by weight, local officers, as inspectors of weights 
and measures, -would require to see that the law -was carried 
out properly. With a \iew of seeing that it was so carried out, 
the-v would have to make visits to shops and to farmers' 
premises, and they would have to take proceedings in any case 
where corn was not sold by weight, or was sold contrary to the 
statute. In the Bill -which I introduced last session, I suggested 
a fine as a means of reminding the public of their duties if it is 
desired to have a uniform weight. This alarmed a fe-w members 
of the Central Chamber of Agriculture ; but I wish to point out 
that the fine was to be levied on the dealer, not on the farmer, 
which is the plan adopted with respect to corn returns, any 
inspector having the power now to take proceedings against 
' any dealer for not making returns. This is occasionally done to 
. remind localities of the law, but I think the knowledge that a 
fine could be enforced would have strengthened the hands of 
farmers against those dealers who might confuse them by 
proposing to buy in different weights or measures to what they 
[ have been accustomed, of which a great point was made by the 
' Committee of 183 k All the best dealers now are above taking: 
I this advantage, and consider the farmers themselves in backward 
' localities are the chief ob.stacle to a uniform system, by reason of 
their inability to calculate in any other standard than the one 
I they have been accustomed to. 
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