Preventing Sale Of Faulty Equipment

Northern Advocate, 29 October 1948, Page 3

Preventing Sale Of Faulty Equipment

Electricity Bill ... !

WELLINGTON, Fri. (Sp.).—“The new regulations will give us the power to stop the sale of this kind of thing.” said the Minister in charge of the State Hydro-Electric Department, (Mr Semple) flourishing a length of electrical lead in the House of Representatives last night.

He was moving the second reading of the Electricity . Amendment Bill, which among other things, provides power for the making of fresh regulations to secure the safety of persons and property from injury and damage caused by faulty electrical equipment. Mr Semple said the lead he had in his possession had been manufactured in America for a vacuum cleaner, and had been sold to a woman recently. The covering was perforated and offered inadequate protection from the wires inside. It was dreadful to think a mother or children might handle it, as it was a positive death-trap. HELP PREVENT FIRES Mr Semple said the regulations would also help to prevent such fires as that which had occurred at the warehouse of John Burns, Ltd., in Auckland. After the Public Trustee had won a case in the Supreme Court on behalf of the widow of a man who hud died as a result of the fire, the Auckland Electric Power Board and the electrical contractors had appealed to the Privy Council, which declared the existing regulations null and void. The bill would also strengthen and widen the regulations so that that kind kind of thing could not happen again.

The bill also attaches to the land guarantees in respect of the installation of electric power in country districts.

After Mr W. S. Goosman (O—Fiako) had expressed approval of the bill on behalf of the Opposition, it was read a second time.