I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This Bill effects certain modifications in the laws at present relating to weights and measures with a view to more efficient administration of those Acts. There are about eight types of modifications suggested by the Bill, of which the most important is that referred to in Part II., whereby measuring instruments are to be brought within the scope of the Weights and Measures Acts. Originally those Acts had only reference to the ordinary type of weight and measure. Afterwards various types of weighing machine were brought within the scope of the legislation. Now we are seeking to bring in measuring instruments, the most notable type in common use being, of course, the ordinary type of petrol pump. The necessity for this extension can best be evidenced by the simple statement that of about 18,000,000 gallons of petrol sold in this country last year about 70 per cent. were sold through instruments that were not subject to any legal check, and there was no protection for the public in this way. This Part II. (Sections 10, 11 and 12) will for the first time bring instruments such as that under control.
There is a hardship arising at this point, because there are certain types of measuring instruments in use at present some of which, even with modifications, can hardly be brought within the scope of the measure, and to insist on the destruction or abolition of those at once would impose a hardship on people who had bought those measures in good faith, and bought them when they were sold as proper types of instruments to use for sale to the public. I would therefore propose at a later stage to give my own Department power to licence certain of those pumps for use, although they would not be types which ordinarily would get a certificate from the inspector. One would have to insist that the pumps should have been in use as from some date before the introduction of this measure, and that they would only be allowed to continue in use for a certain period, that period to be measured by what would be the ordinary life of the particular instrument in question or what period would be considered a suitably long one in order to enable extra modifications to bring it within the certifiable class.
The first part of the Bill, beyond the definition stage, Sections 3 to 9, is rendered necessary by a particular section of the Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1924. In that Act an amendment introduced by, I think, the Labour Party, gave power to the Minister for Justice to insist on certain standardised types of bottles, and the Minister for Justice, in December, 1925, finding there was considerable variation in the types of bottles used for the sale of porter and stout, decided that bottles of a certain type only should be used—bottles containing either a pint, a half-pint or one-third of a pint—and the regulations automatically brought these within the scope of the Weights and Measures Act. At the only factory in which bottles are manufactured in this country a certain procedure was adopted. It was rather complicated, and it was only by the goodwill of the inspector and of the company that it was arranged at all. It is now proposed to impose the necessity for the taking out of a licence in such a case. It was only in the one case at present under consideration that this arrangement was thought a suitable one. At present at the factory the system is that a bottle, on being produced, is stamped with the inspector's mark, but is not released from the factory until such time as the inspector has satisfied himself that that mark ought properly to be applied to it. It cheapens the cost of getting the mark put on and the cost to the trade, and there is no fear of any bottle being allowed to escape, unless it passes the test of the inspector after it comes from the mould. A considerable number have been destroyed by the inspectors acting in this way. It has been the subject of complaint by the factory in question, but it has been found necessary, and is a security, at any rate, to the public that the inspectors are doing their duty and that the accuracy of these measures is being insisted upon.
Here again I had promised to interested parties that if it were considered desirable I would introduce another amendment allowing for testing places to be set up at the ports, so as to enable those who insist on using imported bottles, and who say they cannot get the proper type of bottles made here, to have verification and inspection done at the ports, and to save the necessity of having bottles unpacked, verified and stamped and re-packed and taken back for circulation. However, at the time when I made that promise there were certain statements made with regard to the number of imported bottles coming in and the number of imported bottles that were actually in use in the country at the time. The number does not now appear so large, and it is doubtful if there is to be any saving to those who do use this type of bottle by the arrangement proposed, but if any amendment is thought necessary to be introduced it will have to proceed on the basis that the extra cost of testing at the ports will have to be borne by those who import the bottles, and it will never be done as cheaply as the testing will be done at the factory where the bottles are manufactured in this country.
Outside those two important parts there is Part 3, which introduces a certain number of very minor modifications into the code as it exists at present. Section 13 gives power to the Minister to prescribe accurately and without any doubt with regard to the verification stamp. Previously it was thought that this power was given, but there are some doubts entertained as to how full the power is, and this was inserted to put the matter beyond any doubt. Section 14 removes another peculiarity that has been found to occur in the old Acts. It gives power to cancel a certificate given to an individual as an inspector. As the law stands, once a man is appointed an inspector under the Act, even though he ceases to inspect for a great number of years, he must still retain the title. This is to give power, if and when it is thought necessary, that the title or the nomination of inspectors may be cancelled. There is a certain limitation in it. Section 15 is a very minor matter. It simply is another method of arriving at uniformity with regard to verification. Section 16 imposes by law what is now the recognised practice—that is to say, that inspectors should not be appointed except as the result of an examination test. It has always been the custom, and this merely imposes it as a matter of necessity under the Statute.
Sections 17, 18, 19 and 20 deal with a further peculiarity that arises under the old Acts. Owing to the omission of the framers of the Acts to repeal certain portions of previous legislation, there was dual control with regard to weights and measures. There was a control exercised by the Board of Trade and there was also a control vested, in certain cases, in certain judges and in Petty Sessions magistrates. It is now proposed to have the control vested in the Department of Industry and Commerce. Consequently, it is necessary to repeal the Acts, the repeal of which was omitted in previous legislation. Section 21 is a section the necessity for which has been brought about by the amalgamation of the Gárda Síochána and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It is simply a matter of machinery.
