SCAFFOLDING FATALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18025, 25 February 1922, Page 10

SCAFFOLDING FATALITY.

REQUEST FOR AN INQUIRY. MOVEMENT BY UNIONS. ' A letter regarding the recent scaffold' ing fatality in Auckland has been addressed to the Minister for Labour, the Hon. J. G. Anderson, by the Auckland of (he Amalgamated Society of CarplaUrj and Joiners. The circumstances of the accident were discussed by the executive of the society with the executive of the Auckland Painters' Union, and the letter has been forwarded by the secretary of tho first-named society, Mr. T. Bloodwortb. The letter asks that a public inquiry be held into the cause or causes of the accident, and into the genera] practice followed in the erection of scaffolding, with a view to ascertaining, first, if the present regulations are adequate for the protection of men who work on scaffolds and the publio who pass under them; secondly, if under the present regulations the inspector has sufficient power to compel the regulations to be carried out; and thirdly, what amendments and additional safeguards, if any, are necessary to prevent similar disasters. Four amendments to the existing regulations are suggested, as follows:—(1) That scaffolds of the kind which caused the' accident should be erected by carpenters or competent scaffolders; (2) that the main timbers should be passed by the inspeo-. tor before being put into position; (3) that in lift wells, light wells, and similar places, nets and sheets be fixed under the scaffold so as to protect persons passing under and to safeguard those above in case of falling; (4) that the inspector be given extended power to compel the observance '«ot ithe .regulations. It w added that the Minister would have bisen approached earlier but for the fact that it had been Expected the department itself would have given an indication that it was moving in the matter.