Department begins case

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 4

Department begins case

The Labour Department’s weights and measures section has begun an action in the District Court against a firewood seller and is preparing a case against another after complaints about short measure.

The cases have arisen from 25 complaints the section has investigated since the beginning of the winter. “I am spending most of my time on these inquiries,” said Mr W. A. Sinclair, the senior inspector of weights and measures in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Sinclair said that because of newspaper reports at the end of April, the department had had a “huge number” of calls from people wanting their delivery of wood checked.

“I think you could say the majority were all right,” he said.

“Also because of that publicity we had several of the bigger merchants come to us to have their trucks measured to make sure of giving the correct measure,” said Mr Sinclair. The problem occurred with merchants selling fire-

wuuu via a tcicpiiune number. “People phone up and order wood and a number of them finish up getting shortsupplied. Then we have a job to trace the seller.” The problem of shortsellers was diminishing, said Mr Sinclair, although one seller whom the section had prepared a case against had another complaint made against him last Friday. On this occasion, the buyer, a businessman, had not paid on delivery. He had told the seller he could come and take the wood away again, but h -ot gett ; '”id

wood via a telephone number.

“People phone up and order wood and a number of them finish up getting shortsupplied. Then we have a job to trace the seller.”

jut ne was noi ..ing paiu When buyers make a complaint to the weights and measures section, an inspector measures the wood in a heap. If he considers the load reasonable he says so. If not, it is physically checked with a one cubic metre measuring box.

Metric measurement made checking much easier, said Mr Sinclair. Firewood dealers were now using it in their advertisements, although a few still used the old “cord” measure, equal to a little over 3.5 cu m.