No. 2 Example.

Say any figures in pounds.

	lbs.	oz.
Gross	133	1	actual weights taken at Custom House.
Tare (deducted)	36	15	actual weights taken at Custom House.
Actual Tea in chest	96	2

But again, by rule quoted, it is written by Customs—

	lbs.
Gross	133
Tare (deducted)	37
Actual Tea paid for	96	pounds, on which duty is also paid.

Therefore the loss on chest is 2 ounces only.

Now did weights turn out the same in London that they were on the garden, we could, by doing as in last example, insure only the above trifling 2 ounce loss. But it is not so. The wood dries and thus makes both the gross and tare less. The loss then comes out anything between 2 ounces and 1 pound 14 ounces.

I find the following simple rule will give the exact loss on each and every weight of both gross and tare.

Rule.—Add the ounces above a pound in the gross to the ounces short of a pound in the tare. The sum of the two, in ounces, will be the loss of Tea on the package.

This is only part of the article. I break off here to add a few remarks more appropriate now than what I then wrote.

There are means by which this varying loss, of which the maximum is 1 pound 14 ounces, can be reduced to 4 ounces only on each and every chest.

I admit the procedure is scarcely practical, but as nothing can demonstrate better the absurdity of the system as pursued at the Customs, I give it here.

How can we insure the least loss, taking into consideration the fact that the weights of both the gross and tare, because of the wood drying and lightening in transit, can never come out the same at the Custom House in London as they were on the garden.

We can do it thus: the Tea if well packed in a chest in no way alters in weight during transit. If dry, when put up, it cannot become lighter; if the leaden covering is air-tight, it can absorb no moisture, which would of course make it heavier. I therefore beg the question that it is a fixed quantity, for it must be so if well packed.

We have therefore only to consider the gross and the tare, and, as shown, the loss in Tea, varying from 2 ounces to 1 pound 14 ounces, depends entirely on the weights these are found to be at the Custom House. In other words, if we can insure the gross there being but little over any even number of pounds, and the tare there being but little below any other even number of pounds, we attain (approximately) the least loss we can be mulcted in.

Begging the question that we can add to, or detract from, the gross weight of each chest in the Custom House (before it is put into the scales by the officer there) by the addition or subtraction of a few nails if the weight is nearly what we want, or pieces of hoop iron if the actual varies much from the desired weight—I say, if we can do this, we can insure approximately the minimum of loss. I go to show how this is to be done.

Pack the Tea in the usual way, but whatever the quantity it is desired to put into the chest (it can be varied with each class, for it matters not what the weight is in pounds) add to it 4 ounces, and be very careful that the whole weight of Tea is exactly the number of pounds required, plus 4 ounces—for the whole success of the plan depends on this weight being exact. Nothing more is required to be done at the Factory than has been done hitherto, for it matters not one straw, as regards the success of the plan, what the gross and tare of each package is, nor what the weight of Tea is, as long as exactly 4 ounces above an even number of pounds is there; neither does it signify how much the wood lightens in transit, and thus decreases the weights which were found at Factory for gross and tare.

The next step must be taken at the Custom House in London. Let the importer or the producer’s agent attend and weigh each package himself nicely, any time before the weights are to be taken by the Customs. Then let him make each package 2 ounces above the even number of pounds. This will be easy enough, by the addition or subtraction of a few nails or hoop iron. For instance, suppose the chest to weigh 140 pounds 6 ounces, he would take away nails or hoop iron weighing 4 ounces. If it weighed 140 pounds 13 ounces, he would, by adding 5 ounces more nails or hoop iron, make it 141 pounds 2 ounces. All would then be finished, and each and every package so treated would give a loss in Tea of 4 ounces only.

If my plan could be carried out (as the minimum loss otherwise is 2 ounces, and the maximum 1 pound 14 ounces the mean is one pound), we save a loss of the said pound on each chest, minus the loss we compound for, viz., 4 ounces. That is to say, we gain 12 ounces on each package which, in a break of 2 or 3 hundred chests, means a good deal to the producer or Customs!

I will give one example in figures. Any other possible figures can be tried: it will always come out the same, if the weight of Tea is exactly 4 ounces above any given number of pounds.