DUH!
Boy do I feel stupid, the answer was staring me in the face and I missed it. There is no conflict between the two accounts. We are not talking about two parachutes, we are talking about four parachutes, the two she had carried around the world and the replacements for them that had been shipped out to Darwin.
Why replacements, why not just continue on with the chutes that she had?
Because regulations require that a parachute may not be carried in an American airplane unless it had been opened, hung up, aired, inspected, and re-packed by a U.S. licensed Parachute Rigger within the prior 60 days. The rigger must seal the ripcord and sign the parachute log card that is carried in the parachute container. This must have been accomplished within in the preceding 60 days or it would have been illegal to have the chutes in the Electra. I know that this has been the regulation for the last 60 years so I am confident that the same requirement applied in 1937. From my experience with the old CARs I know that these types of regulations do not change in any appreciable way
The tip-off, which I missed, is in the newspaper story, the parachutes had been delivered from America "Fully tested and ready for immediate use," so they must have been packed within the prior 60 days by an American Parachute Rigger. Earhart had to remove the first, out of date, set of chutes from the plane and replace them with the legal chutes. Then, as she said, she shipped the first set of chutes home.
I have attached several photos of my chest type parachute. You open the protective flap in the front to expose the ripcord and the ripcord pins. The last pin is sealed with a lead seal on thread carrying the code imprint for the particular rigger which you inspect before every jump to ensure that the chute has not been opened since it was sealed by the rigger. The back on the container has a pocket in the center which holds the log for the chute showing when it was packed, the license number of the Parachute Rigger, and his signature.
gl