PUBLIC WEIGHBRIDGES.

Evening Star, Issue 3232, 30 June 1873, Page 3

PUBLIC WEIGHBRIDGES.

fro the Editor.

Sir,— ln reference to the letters of Mr Hughes and >other correspondents on the short and over weight of coal, I have to thftt while the custom of the trade, and the laws annexed to that custom remain as they are, the public' and the dealer are of necessity, cheated by turns, but in the long rim houiSt defers graft be .the greatest sufferer*. "I,Understand the caft-or dr# wtth 'coal -tnust be weighed i?tfKfcensea whenthe ts*bi'OtHeight of Wt cart-paihtMi'lhereon Is allowed m t Msb understand daily adjusted, or their accuracy tested; neither are they thoroughly 1 cleaned weekly, their centres and rests polished up with blackread. This is an oversight—whoever may be to wriglitref~a carfrir ascertained and painted- thereon, but after a course of wet weather, a cart or dray will absorb; moisture' (841b. more driest) While in. ihat state every- load weighed! will bet shori tbat Weight less or more than the weigbndge-ticket indicates, as the weight originally painted on the cart is the tare allowed by the writer of the weight-nobs. ‘ If, andcoilswere in bags there might bea further deficiency ot3olbA to40lb& The iron about a well-mounted cart or dray will average SSOlba. to 4001bs. (I am supposing rings to be xlin ); wean Will gradually,, the weight wilPvgry d#Uy withthe-stateof |he weather-ap4 -the roads $ a drayman can only know the nett weight ©This dray immediabely after being weighed, but none of, these matters 'seems,to be taken,into consicteration—who isth,Mau»e? Asa remedy for this unsatisfactory State of things, I would .propose the adoption of ttyf system in usoatfibhie, 1 there, manttre, liipe, and coal menhdats‘ generally have their, own weigh- 1 bridgiT? it 1 hi '«ily tested, peHodididlV cleaned, and rests and centres poljshgd with Kverf*catF Ts*wefghe<r before being loaded, and'* the weight ontered in the way-bill or weight-note, and the weight of the goods added. If the buyer has a«y doubts he can have recourse to a public weight-bridge; indeed the merchants’ weighbridge is a grand check on those of the public, and the public’s on them. It appears to me, when a like system is adopted: in Otago, /the present .grievance* about over and short weight of coal, &a, will be ended, but not before. ■ I could name more than one firm in Dunedin that would icon savage SJ»S a\elgfi>ndge would cost, of the knewiog, the bdriieM he wai doing was doup correctly. (Muring the i usage weighbridges receive, theywdmm.'td b® built fin perfectly level on a very sure, .foundation, free all reund, with centres and rests kept (dean as a goldsmith’s balance.—l am, &c., i « . , Wm. Dalrymple, Semor. Dunedin, June 30.