§ MR. ISAACS (Newington, Walworth)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, "Whether it is a fact that the officer in charge of the Standards Department, who is in receipt of £600 per annum as his official salary, has been, during the last few years, frequently absent from the Department making local comparisons of weights and measures in the custody of Provincial Inspectors with the Board of Trade standards at various places in the United Kingdom; and, if so, by what authority; what provision is made for the due performance of that officer's duties during such absences from London; and, whether complaints have been made to the Department of the inefficient way in which such local comparisons have been made, and that standards have been sent to weight and measure makers in London to be readjusted immediately after such local reverifications?
§ THE SECRETARY (Baron HENRY DE WORMS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)It is part of the ordinary duty of the Superintendent of Weights and Measures to undertake, under the direction of the Board, the local comparison of standards, and this duty does not interfere with the proper discharge of the other duties of his office Local Authorities may, under the Weights and Measures Act, 1878, either send their standards to London for verification or they may have them tested locally. 1134 They much prefer the latter course, on account of the serious expense and delay caused by sending standards to manufacturers in London. On an average of the last four years there have been annually 40 applications for local testing. No complaints have been made to the Department as to the inefficient comparison of standards; but, on the other hand, the Local Authorities have generally expressed entire satisfaction with the existing arrangements.