WIRELESS ON SHIPS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8654, 12 February 1914, Page 5

WIRELESS ON SHIPS

NEW ZEALAND REGULATIONS VESSELS MUST BE FITTED BY • JULY Ist. By July l«l> of tdiis year, ovorv steamship .registered iu Now Zealand and carrying passengers which i-s engaged in tho foreign or intercolonial trade, and every home-'trado steamship which is authorised by her ordinary survey certificate to curry not less i,lian fifty iX»assengors at sea,, will have In be fitted with wireless telegraph J in.fore leaving or entering u Now Zealand port. This is a 'recent decision of tho Now Zealand. Government, which has drawn up a sot of regulations regarding tho matter. The coastal vessels affected by tins decision aro as .follows;. Arahur;i, fni.iiidb, Mapourika, Hauroto, Monowai, Harawa, Miaruroa, Takapuna, To Anau and Alanaia. Altogether twenty-seven vessels come under tbo regulations, but seventeen of these, including tb.i intercolonial vessels, aro already fitted, leaving tbo above-named to bo fitted within tbo next five mouths. Tho regulations which have Icon drawn up by tho Government arc similar to those ruling in most other countries now. They provide for tho strict inspection of ships’ wireless equipment. Clause 3 roads : "Tbo Minister for Merino may appoint inspectors for tho purposes of theso regulations, and such inspectors and superintendents of mercantile marine may visit any steamship required by these regulations to bo equipped with apparatus for radiocommunication, before they leave port, and ascertain if they are equipped with such apparatus, the operation of which shall bo carried out by a teleI'rapliiet holding a certificate as prescribed by article X of the detailed service regulations attached to tbo International Radiotolegraphic Convention.” Other important clauses are as fol“Whoro a passenger steamship sub joob to these regulations is without the apparatus and the operator prescribed, and is about to attempt to leave port, an inspector or suporin tondont shall: —(a) Notify the master of tho fine to which bo will bo liable and of tho particulars in respect of which the law has not been complied with; (b) notify at (nice the Collector of Customs, who may thereupon withhold tllo vessel’s clearance until tho requirements of those regulations are complied with; (o) prepare a report in writing of his action and transmit it to the Collector of Customs, who shall forward a copy to tho secretary of the Marino Department. "An inspector or superintendent may at any time before a vessel subject to these regulations leaves pent require the master to give him a certificate in the form set forth in the appendix hereto that the wireless apparatus of his ship is efficient and in good working order, and the master shall give such certificate before the vessel leaves port. , "The power necessary to transmit/ signals shall at all times while the vessel is under way bo available for the wireleas operator's use.” The regulations provide for a fine of £SO in the case of a breach by either master or owner of the vessel.