The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-02-10
Two Inspectors Of Weights and
Measures Begin Raid in
Fishmarket.
PUBLIC HAS BEEN THE GOAT
Nearly All Scales Tempered With
and Many Measures Found
to Be Short.
tFrom wednesday,s AdverlIser.l


The first "raid" on bogus and i'm
perfect scales was made yesterday by
agents of the superintendent of pub
lie works, who is given jurisdiction
over the city's weights and measures
by statute, and resulted in the discov-
cry that four out of five of every scale
tested had been tampered with to fool
the unsuspecting public.
Not only was a large harvest of
bogus scales gathered in the region of
the fishmarket, but yard measures, not
uaite thirty.fve inches long, and other
curiosities were found and promptly
eonfscated.
The information derived from the
few short hours Of work does not com
prise any showing how long the Homo
lulu public has been the goat. 1t has
probably been long time.
Halvor Myhre, assistant to Food
Commissioner Blanchard, and one of
Superintendent Campbell's staff, were
dispatched on the scale testing measure
campaign which resulted in the
''fnds.' Excitement reigned high at
the fishmarket, which was the first
place chosen by the operators for their
search, for just as they entered and
commenced their work, Doctor Mackall
came in through another entrance and
raided the whole place for unsanitary
stalls.
Nearly All Wrong,
With but one OF two exceptions,
every scale in the fshmarket was
found off the proper register. One
scale was three pounds off-backwards.
Most of them were few ounces, at
least, off the other way, which meant
lust that much loss to every customer.
Some statistician is soon to arise who
will explain that should that scale have
been used for weighing purposes one
hundred times ON busy day, the pub
lie will have been out just about
eighteen pounds of meat, which at
prevailing price, is quite considerable
in the meat line.
Some of the scales had neat little
iron bands fastened to the rim on the
underside. They were very inconspi-
cuous, and it was not until all of them
we're examined and then compared with
a new scale that the fake was discov-
cred. They resemble a minor repair to
a broken rim, but incidentally add
three ounces or more to the weight of
whatever happens to be weighed on
the scales.
One of the Chinese keepers, little
less artistic than his fellows, had
soldered great piece of lead on each
side of the scale underneath. He was
probably five olnces the gamer on
every purchase made from him,
A temporary incentive to profit was
common in large chunks of beef suet
Several of the scales showed these
chunks stuck to the bottom of the
scales so firmly that it required an eff
fort to remove them Each weighed
several ounces, but looked innocent
enough should any customer observe
them.
Scales Confscated
Altogether twenty or more scales
were confscated'' as being far out
of register, and this was only the re.
suit of short raid. The corridor Of
the capitol in the public works depart
ment looked like hardware shop for
the greater part of the afternoon.
News of the "'raid /" went the rounds
quickly and a number of storekeepers
decided to take the bull by the horns
and brought their scales up to the de-
partment to be tested before some in
qlisitive agent put proper weight on
them and discovered them to be three
ounces to the bad.
The campaign against the bogus
scales, which has been advocated by
The Advertiser for months, is to con
tinue today and until all the scales of
the city have been investigated and
sealed.
On finding a scale perfect the inves-
tigators are sealing it and stamping it
as such. The statute provides heavy
punishment for the man who tampers
with his scale after it has been thus
sealed, but the only section upon which
the offenders just discovered could be
taken into court would be for gross
cheat, and to do this it would be neces-
sary to secure witnesses in the persons
who have made purchases from the
scales in question, a difficult matter to
prove. No prosecution win probably
be made.