MACHINERY INSPECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 70, 24 March 1933, Page 8

MACHINERY INSPECTIONS.

FREQUENCY AND COST. OPINIONS IN AUCKLAND. There is some difference of opinion in Auckland with. regard to the fees charged for machinery inspections made by the Marine. Department/ In Wellington and Christchurch opinion is that the Department is "going too far," and, in the effort to be self-supporting, is "carrying inspections to extremes." The Sead of one large, engineering department, who has had 26 years' experience, said that he thought the inspections were absolutely necessary. The inspectors had always performed their duties faithfully, and their inspections were a safeguard to the public, employer, and employee alike. He had not met a single inspector who did not know his job thoroughly. The inspectors sent around by the Department were highly capable men with years of marine experience behind them. Th» manager of the Auckland Power Board said that the matter had been considered by the board some years ago, when it was decided that the Department's inspections were superfluous and a duplication, more or less, of their own inspections of their machinery. The board was of the opinion that the \ charges made by the Department were not equitable. To charge a fee for every little motor installed was ridiculous. The whole inspection could be carried out by the factory inspectors. The superintending engineer at the Farmers' Freezing Company was of the opinion that the fees chared by the Department were not too high, although they were in most cases double the rates obtaining two years ago, when they were undoubtedly too low. "The inspection of machinery is a good thing for everyone concerned," he said. "This particularly applies to boilers." A boiler could burst, and while not harming anyone inside the factory could injure pedestrians outside. Inspections were made once a. year in the case of boilers and electric motors, but in the case of electric lifts, which had only recently been brought under the machinery in- , spection regulations, inspection twice a year was quite unnecessary.