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Safe Working Loads Regulations. The regulations require that no person shall sell or purchase any fibre rope for working cargo unless a written guarantee is given as to quality or brand and breaking-load, and that such guarantee must first have the Department's approval. The Department's approval is given in the form of a certificate based on the result of mechanical tests of samples of the ropes. During the year twenty samples of various brands and sizes of rope holding guarantee certificates were selected at random and tested with a view to ascertaining whether the quality of guaranteed rope was being maintained. The resirits of the tests were satisfactory in all cases. Three instances of the overloading of cargo gear came under the Department's notice. Proceedings against the offenders were duly taken, and convictions obtained. General Harbour Regulations. Regulation 103 of the General Harbour Regulations, 1935, requires : — (1) In every case where there occurs any accident causing death or serious injury to any person engaged in loading or discharging or handling cargo or coal, or in repair, overhaul, or repair-work on a ship, the person having the control or management of the work in connection with which the accident occurred shall forthwith after such accident deliver to the Superintendent of Mercantile Marine written notice of the same on the prescribed form. (2) In every case of breakage or failure of any derrick, chain sling, rope, or other appliance used in loading or discharging cargo or coal on or from ships, the person in charge of the work in connection with which the break or failure occurred shall, as soon as is reasonably possible thereafter, deliver to the Superintendent of Mercantile Marine written notice thereof on the prescribed form. The total number of accidents reported under the provisions of this regulation was 529, 509 being reported under the first paragraph and twenty under the second. Of the 509 reported accidents in which injuries were received by a worker, 485 could not be classed as serious and were, no doubt, reported as a precautionary measure. The remaining twenty-four comprised two fatal accidents and twenty-two involving workers in more or less serious injuries. Of the two fatal accidents one was due to a seaman falling from a gantry when releasing a hatchlid, and the other was due to a seaman falling from a boatswain's chair when painting a ventilator. Neither case was, strictly speaking, within the scope of the regulation. Of the twenty-two serious but non-fatal accidents, nine were due to falls down holds, four to falls other than down holds, five to being struck by falling cargo, and four to being struck by swinging cargo or gear. With regard to the twenty reported accidents involving failure of gear, two involved the failure of a derrick, two the failure of a chain, one the failure of a wire sling, and fifteen the failure of blocks, hooks, and other iron components of the gear. In none of these accidents were any injuries sustained by a worker, and in the majority of cases they were due to misuse of the gear. Inspection of Boilers. The total number of boilers inspected was 8,979, as against 9,009 inspected last year, a slightdecrease of thirty. Of the boilers inspected, 4,834 were fired boilers, 3,370 were unfired steam-pressure vessels, and 775 were air-receivers. The inspections included eighty-five new power-boilers, aggregating 1,527 horse-power manufactured in the Dominion, and thirty-seven new power-boilers, aggregating 655 horse-power imported from abroad. They also included 168 new steam-pressure vessels and forty-one new air-receivers manufactured in the Dominion, and 179 new steam-pressure vessels and fifty new air-receivers imported from abroad. The total number of new boilers, pressure vessels, and air-receivers for the year was 560, an increase of 104 over last year, and the drawings for the whole of these were examined and checked in Head Office before the units were accepted for a safe-working pressure. Some of the boilers of which plans were examined and approved are important boilers of their kind. One set of drawings represented two large water-tube boilers of the four-drum type each designed to evaporate 30,0001b. of steam per hour. Each boiler is complete with a battery of modern equipment for the economical production of high-pressure steam, consisting of superheater, economizer, de-aerating, and water-softening plant, and mechanical stokers. The designed working pressure is 450 lb. per square inch. Another drawing examined was of a cross-drum type water-tube boiler with a heating surface of 4,394 square feet. The boiler includes a superheater with a heating surface of 1,320 square feet, an economizer and a chain-grate stoker for automatic firing. The working-pressure is 270 lb. per square inch. A drawing of a similar boiler of rather less heating surface and a working-pressure of 250 lb. per square inch was also examined. In the steam-heating class of boiler plans were examined and approved of a large boiler with a heating surface of 432 square feet working at a pressure of 10 lb. per square inch. Among the unfired pressure vessels, plans were approved of a multiple roll ironer of all-welded construction, 13 ft. 8 in. long, designed to work at a steam-pressure of 100 lb. per square inch. The plans of Dominion-made boilers included several multitubular boilers of the largest size. A group of three now under construction are each 84 horse-power, 6 ft. 6 in. in diameter by 16 ft. long, and will work at a pressure of 130 lb. per square inch.

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