Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-28 00:00:00

(Signed)
To R. T. Pennefather, Esq.,
Governor's Secretary, Toronto.

JOHN BRUCE, Secretary.

To the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for
Trade.

Your lordship having, by Sir Emerson Tennent's letter
dated the 15th inst., transmitted for our report a copy of
a deSpatch, which your lordships have received through
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, from the Go-
vernor of Canada, with a memorial from the Board of
Trade at Quebec, representing the serious injury and
loss which those engaged in the lumber trade from that
place sustain by the present system of different modes of
measurement of timber and deals, at different ports in
the United Kingdom, where also that system is generally
complained of as a grievance by those interested in the
trade, and submitting, as there is a Bill before the Impe•
rial Parliament to equalise weights and measures
throughout the United King tom, whether it might not be
expedient in order to remove the evil complained of, to
have her Majesty's Government to equalise and regulate
the measurement of such goods in the same law with the
weights and measures,—

WE REPORT.

That, in accordance with the instructions issued to the
officers of this department, timber, whether foreign or
colonial, is measured by the calliper, and the contents of
each piece (exceeding two cubic feet) is ascertained.
Foreign deals are piled, and the contents of the pile is
taken, or. in certain cases, a separate cubic measurement
is made of each piece.
Colonial deals, however, are subject to a nominal duty
only, and if the importers furnish the officers of Customs
with the specification of a cargo, spewing the dimensions
of the goods, and the total cubic measurement, the duty
is computed thereon, the officers counting the number of
deals delivered, but in the absence, of a.specification the
goods are measured in pile.
The Board of Trade at Quebec, not having stated anv
instances of the measurements complained of, we directed
one of our principal officers to communicate with the
leading importer of colonial timber and deals at this port,
with the view 'of ascertaining more particularly the
nature of the different modes of measurement alluded to
by the applicants, and whether the complaint had
reference to the system of measurement adopted by
the officers of Customs for the purpose of assessing the
duty.
We now beg to inform your lordships that the parties
applied to have expressed their unanimous opinions that
the mode pursued by this department, in London, of
measuring timber with the calliper, and of computing the
cubical contents of deals by means of the specification
supplied by the importer, gives entire satisfaction to the
trade. In proof of this, they stated that the Customs
returns for timber governed not only the freight, dock
dues, and the duty, but also the purchase and sale of the
goods, and that the only reason why the sale of the deals
is seldom made by the Customs' measurement is, that it is
not made by the load or pile, but is effected by a trade
measurement of every piece. according to practical though
conventional rules, under which the measurements of
length, width, and thickness are subject to the custom of
the ports from whence they are brought, and of the ports
at which they arrive.
They further stated that they are aware that the
officers of Customs pursue the same practice at all the
outports as iu London.
The parties likewise expressed 'their opinion that the
complaint preferred by the Board of Trade at Quebec,
had reference chiefly to the practice observed at the
port of Liverpool, where the trade do not adopt the
Customs' measurement in regard to timber, but remeasure
such goods by the girt line, in order to ascertain the con-
tents, instead of by the calliper. By this system allowance
is made for defective angles, should the tree not be fully
squared. A cargo thus measured realises from 9to 10
per cent less than if the calliper were used, and although
the duty and freight are charged by the Customs'
measurement, the price paid by the importers to the
shippers of the goods in the colonies, and by .the retail
dealers to the importers is calculated upon the lower
quantity.
With respect to the different results arrived at by the
twe modes of measuring timber above mentioned, we
would observe that however reasonable it may at first
sight appear, that allowance should be made for defective
angles, it has been ascertained that the various fractions
rejected in the diameter, length, and contents, when the
callipers are used, sufficiently compensate for irregulari-
ties in form, and that in fact the actual contents of a
piece of timber is ascertained with greater exactness by
the mode of measurement adopted by the Customs than
by the girt line as used by the trade at Liverpool.
As respects deals, deductions are also made by the
trade at Liverpool, on account of splintered or injured
deals, and as the Customs take the specification or
shipper's invoice by which to assess the duty, a short
return is made to the shipper varying from 5 to 10 per
cent in consequence of such deductions.
The short measurement computed by the trade at
Liverpool does not, as we are:informed, produce a cor-
responding increase of price as might be anticipated on
the sale of the goods, and the reasons assigned for this
result are the great extent of the colonial wool trade at
that port, and the fact that freights are lower to Liver.
pool than to most places, on account of the shipowners
being able to obtain return cargoes from thence to the
colonies, which is frequently not the case at other ports.
From the facts above stated, your lordships will observe
that the complaint of the Board of Trade at Quebec has
reference to the different modes of measuring timber and
deals, adopted by parties engaged in the trade in wood
goods, and not to the system pursued by the officers o"
this department.
(Signed)

GRENVILLE C• L. BERKELEY.
EDWARD LARWIY.
Custom House, 2nd July, 1857.

' Mr. Lesueur, of the Bank of Montreal, in this city, is
preparing a volume of commercial tables rendered neon-
sary by the proposed adoption of a decimal currency.
The tables will consist of sterling turned into dollars and
cents from par to 14 per cent advance; a table of the
decimal value of Halifax currency ; interest tables from
6to 10 per cent, and commission tables from Ito I per
cent. All in dollars and cents.

A. new feature of trade is the shipment of ale from
Ameriea to Europe—such a shipment having been made
from Cleveland to Liverpool, by the barque C. J. Kershaw.
—.Nay York Paper.
" PRO-SLAVERY" PAPER IN ENGLAND.—The Day Book
publishes the prospectus of an English newspaper, to be
called the Manchester Cotton Press, the first number of
which will make its appearance io November next. It is
intended to represent the cotton interest, of which Great
Britain is the centre, and is established b.; gentlemen con-
nected with the various branches of the cotton trade. It
will also discuss the negro question and " the nature of the
negro, and investigate the laws of his wise and humane
government, without relation to the abstract theories of
Mr. Wilberforce and of Exeter Hall on the one hand, or
to the extreme and brutal ideas of the Cuban planters on
the other." (We take the above from the New York
Journal of Commerce. We sometimes have to go from
home to get " home" news—but we are ir,clined to beliete
the paragraph to be a Yankee Pal