LAXITY ALLEGED

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 8, 4 October 1929, Page 11

LAXITY ALLEGED

HANDLING OF EXPLOSIVES Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, October 2. The regrettable frequency of accidents on -Public Works during last year was the subject of' comment to-day by Mr. A. Cook, National President of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour, who denounced the apparent laxity in the conduct of works carried out under the Public Works Department. Mr. Cook emphasised the haphazard manner in which the ordinary precautions regarding the handling of explosives were allowed to be set aside. He instanced a recent accident which occurred on the Lake Waikaremoana road works, when five Public Works men were injured; one seriously. Gelignite, which they ■ were warming before an open fire, exploded prematurely. Another ease of premature explosion took place on the same works a few weeks previously, stated Mr. Cook, when a man who was tamping frozen gelignite into the rocks was blown to pieces. The danger of working with frozen gelignite was well-known to all men who had had any experience with explosives and to eliminate this danger a regulation warming pan was available, in which to thaw the gelignite. The placing of large numbers of skilled men on Public Works where they had full access to explosives, in the handling of which they were entirely ignorant, was denounced by Mr. Cook as one of the chief factors in the frequency of accidents. He blamed the engineer-in-charge of the Public Works Department for alleged failure to issue instructions with reference to the handling of explosives to the Departmental officers in charge of the men on the WOI ’1 !S - , . “During the past twelve months.’ stated Mr. Cook, “there were more accidents proportionately than during the previous five years, and the large number ot unskilled men on relief works, combined with the failure to give definite instructions to the men regarding the proper use of explosives, are the principal factors ■in this desperate state of affairs. Unless stricter precautions are taken to ensure that no men not qualified to handle explosives are allowed access to the magazines, the frequency of accidents of such a nature will in no way diminish.