Mixed up over metrics...

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 54, 9 July 1974, Page 1

Mixed up over metrics...

BY PAT LIDDELL Now that we are all being encoiiraged to "think metric," it seems that the convenient quarter and half pound packs of smail-goods have disappeared from Taupo grocers' shops and supermarkets. Instead they have been replaced by odd-sized parcels markeb with — to me, at least — totally meaningless metric hyroglyphics. We know, thanks to the » Metric Advisory Board's publicity campaign, that 500 grams is a little more than a pound. Beyond that, any kind of rough mental conversion becomes increasingly difficult unless you are a mathematical whizz. Manufacturers are tending to confuse the issue even more by turning out interesting 213 gram and 103 gram packs of bacon and luncheon sausage.

In a laborious effort to finally come to grips with metrCs — after all the conversion to decimal currency was relatively simple and painless — I have thumbed repeatedly through the advisory board's pamphlet "At Home with Metrics." The pamphlet states that such commodities as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables should be bought in steps of 100 grams. That's tlne — biit how do manufacturers justify the fine graduations in weight they place on anything between 100 grams and 1 kilogram? And why should it be necessary to do one's shopping glued to a metric conversion chart, which, in this instance, is of little use? • Perhaps our manufacturers are trying to give us girls a little mental exercise as we trundle our way around the supermarket.