MANY INSPECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 230, 29 September 1931, Page 6

MANY INSPECTIONS.

If one may personify the State, one may imagine it getting up in the morning and saying, "It's a fine da}"; let's go out and inspect something." The Christ-church "Press," in a study of an activity that ranges "from noxious weeds to machinery, from injurious birds to lunatics, from pawnbrokers to fungicides and insecticides, from seeds to second-hand dealers and the rabbit nuisance," lists sixty measures as"some of the Acts under which inspectors are appointed, and apart from these there are all the inspections by local bodies. It would be interesting to know 7 how much attention the Government has given to this field of economy. Even if it cannot see its way to reduce the number of kinds of inspections—and we do not admit that all these are necessary—it should at least put an end to duplication of effort. It was revealed jn Auckland recently that there was double inspection by officers of the Power Board and of, the Public Works Department. The case is cited of a Christchurch public body that has to undergo, and pay for, inspection by both the Public Works Department and the Marine Department. An expensive alteration was made at the behest of the PW.D. inspector, and then the Marine Department ordered the work to be undone. Why cannot the competent officials of public bodies be trusted to k>ok after machinery? One may also seek to know just how much money is spent in this country in inspecting and testing imported goods that have passed perfectly reliable inspections and tests in the countries where they were made. Really, the Government should look into this matter seriously.