ELECTRICAL GOODS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25803, 26 March 1945, Page 4

ELECTRICAL GOODS

HAZARD ALLEGATIONS CASE FOR THE MANUFACTURERS (Special) WELLINGTON, Mar. 24. “ Inferentially, or perhaps designedly, two or three speakers at the recent conference of the New Zealand Institute of Electricians at Palmerston North have cast the stigma of ‘ hazardous ’ over the whole range of locally-manufactured electrical goods,” said Mr. D. I Macdonald, secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, to-day in a comment on some of the remark.* made when the institute decided t( press for the licensing of all resellers of electrical accessories. He said thal manufacturers agreed with every step, legal or otherwise, being, taken to prevent electrical hazard, but did not agree that such action required unfair criticism as a corollary. The New Zealand wiring and electrical regulations generally imposed the most rigid tests in the world on the quality of materials used and the standards of workmanship displayed in their installation, Mr Macdonald pointed out. The Public Works Department laid down high standards, and practically every electrical article produced and used in New Zealand had to pass these tests. Much trouble, Mr Macdonald said, arose because there were two types of accessories—those designed for domestic use and those for industrial use. Shortage sometimes' compelled the electrician, through no fault of his own, to use the wrong materials in the wrong place—which was comparable to harnessing a pony to the work of a draught horse. This was no fault of the manufacturer. “ I suggest, however,” Mr Macdonald said, “that the true basis of the rerrfhrks made at Palmerston North had nothing to do with quality or hazards, but that they were merely a means of camouflage for some electricianretailers to try and prevent the sales of certain goods by the departmental stores. If I am right in this assumption, then I suggest that the electricians affected should revise their sales policies, rather than damn a young manufacturing industry, which is doing a vital and valuable job, as means, of screening themselves from competition to which the bulk of other retail traders are subject. , “It is true that no electrical goods in New Zealand to-day are manufactured for, and sold in, one type of store only. But it should be noted that the goods sold in the departmental stores are the same as those purchased by the electrician, the Public Works Department, and the armed forces, and passed by the Army Inspection Department and shipped overseas. They a re the same accessories as are being purchased in huge quantities for liberated countries abroad. It seems more than strange that goods acceptable in their millions to the Munitions Controller should be found hazardous by . isolated electricians, and the electrical; goods manufacturers are therefore happy, to leave the public to judge the position for themselves. . ."Throughout the war period local manufacturers have kept the traders and the public supplied with electrical accessories in the face of a worldwide shortage.” Mr Macdonald _ concluded, “ and have also met the extensive and extremely varied demands of the services.”