Reports from the Court of Claims Submitted to the House of Representatives Volume 12 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 Excerpt: ...a different officer from the gauger, who, as we have seen, measured the spirit as it passed from the cistern into the casks, was required by the regulations to make a daijy report to the assessor of the indication of the meter at 12 o'clock meridian, and the assistant assessor was required to render a like report whenever he visited the distillery. And the instructions were that the assessors "in making their Opinion of t he court. monthly computation under section 20, above cited will use the information thus given in determining the production;" that is, in determining whether or not the distiller had accounted in his returns for all the spirits produced. Notwithstanding the requirements of the Commissioner, the meters generally did not prove a complete success, either because of the trouble and expense they caused to the distillers, the additional trouble to the storekeeper, assessor, and other officers, the reduction of the tax on spirits from $2 to 50 cents a gallon, thereby lessening the object and the attempts to commit fraud, or for other causes, and on the 8th of June, 1871, the then Commissioner issued a circular in these terms: "It having been ascertained by experience that these meters, as a class, do not fully answer the purpose for which they were intended, their use is hereby discontinued, and all existing orders prescribing the same are revoked. All meters attached to distilleries may be detached. The meters being the property of distillers, they will be permitted to dispose of them as they desire." And in June, 1872, so much of sections 2 and 3 of the act of 1868 as related to meters was repealed, and the further use of meters was finally abandoned by-law. (17 Stat. L., 239.) There were circulars and instructions from th...