§ MR. BROADHURST () LeicesterI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been directed to the several cases in which brewers have been convicted and fined under the Weights and Measures Act, 1878, for using for trade casks of far less capacity than their usual reputed contents, at Swindon, December 1896; Newcastle, January 1897; Haslingden, May 1898; and Daventry, December 1898, which casks were declared by the respective courts to be measures under the Act of 1878; and whether he will cause the attention of local authorities to be given to the more regular testing of such vessels?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADEThe attention of the Board of Trade has been called to this Question. The Board believe that the local authorities are already fully alive to the effect of the legal decisions, which would appear to be that there is not a breach of the law unless the unstamped barrel is, in fact, used as a measure.