GUARDING AGAINST FRAUD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2022, 6 March 1907, Page 3

GUARDING AGAINST FRAUD.

A writer in tlio Morning Leader givos some interesting details of tho work of the Public Control Committee of tho London County Council, in whose hands are placed the check-

ing of fraud, and the guarding against discomfort, nuisance, and danger, throughout the metropolis. The committee secs, for instance, that all is fair between salesman and buyer. During the past tlireo years it has dealt with 6,000,000 now weights and measures, and rejected nearly 1,250,000 as unjust. But more interesting still, nearly 4,250,000 weights and measures in use have been tested, and 90,000 found to be incorrect. Many are the tricks employed to defraud the public. The bottoms of liquid measures are knocked up, weights are hollowed out, and pieces of metal arc attached to tho arms of balances to bring tho scale down against the customer. A clever coster trick is to have a string attached to tho scales and pulled by a confederate at the other end of tho barrow when a customer is being served. The gasmeter, like tho camera, cannot lie, but it.can bo guilty of a “terminological inexactitude,” for of 600,000 meters tested by the committee In the last three years, 81,000 were rejected as untrue It is only fair to say that of the meters tested, half were penny in the slot machines used by the poor. The vigilance in the matter of coal produces amazing results. The committee has the power to weigh coal as it is delivered to the householder, and a travelling office has been constructed for the purpose of keeping an eye on fraudulent dealers. AA’lien this work was commenced tho convictions were nearly 500 in the year, now they average less than 40, and

it is calculated that this travelling coal office saves purchasers £500,000 a year. But curiously enough, there is not the same law in the case of bread, which can only bo inspected

in shops, and not at the consumer’s door. Tho committee also administers the Shop Hours Acts, which provides that persons under eighteen shall not he employed more than 74 hours, including meal times, in any one week, There are 84,000 shops under their jurisdiction, and last year 110,000 inspections were made, and 451 cases of over-employment detected Since 1899, however, the serious cases of over-employment have dropped from 454 to 96