H.—ls.

One hundred and twenty-six non-fatal accidents connected with inspected machinery were reported during the year, and of these, 26 were considered major accidents and 103 minor accidents. In 110 cases the accidents occurred with machines considered to be adequately equipped with safeguards. The majority of these accidents were due to failure of the human element, and may be attributed to mental lapses, sickness, fatigue, age, inexperience, inattention, carelessness, and unsafe practices. The latter may be instanced by untidiness about machines, bad lay-out of the work in hand, unsuitable clothing, adjusting running machinery, putting belts on running shafting, and such dangerous practices as cleaning or dusting machines in motion and painting in the immediate neighbourhood of moving machinery. No less than ten accidents were due to cleaning machinery in motion, one being of a very serious nature, when the unfortunate victim lost his right hand at the wrist. A decrease in the number of accidents with well-appointed and well-guarded power-driven machinery can only be effected by encouragement of safe practices among machine-workers, and there is urgent need for organized safety work in industry. It is apparent that managements and workers generally are willing to co-operate in the promotion of safety, but they are often not well informed on accident causes. In every workroom or shop it should be the particular duty of the foreman or other responsible person in immediate charge to see that all machine-guards are kept in position, in good order, and properly adjusted, that the workroom is kept clean and tidy, and that workers are instructed in the use of safe methods when working at or near moving machinery. It is considered that Inspectors of Machinery, with their full knowledge of accident problems, should be able to foster an interest in educative measures as successfully as they have done in mechanical measures, and during the year the staff was informed by circular instructions as to the position with regard to machinery accidents in the Dominion and to the prevalence of unsafe practices, and to the need for education in the matter of safe practices among the workers. The number of young persons injured by machinery was again high, no less than 36, or 28 per cent, of the total number of victims, being young persons of eighteen years of age and under. Many of these had very little experience with machinery and had been operating the machines with which they were injured for very short periods. Wood-working machinery was responsible for 42 accidents out of the total of 129, and of these, 25 accidents were due to saws, 5 to planers, and 8 to shapers and moulders. There were also 7 saw accidents in industries other than wood-working, making the total saw accidents 24 and establishing the fact that the power-driven saw is responsible for more accidents than any other type of machine used in industry in the Dominion. The whole of a circular saw cannot be guarded, as a portion of the teeth suitable for the work in hand must always be more or less exposed and is a hazard to the worker. It is a compulsory requirement that the back of every circular saw shall be fitted with a riving-knife, which serves the dual purpose of protecting the back edge of the saw and preventing sawn timber closing in and being thrown forward over the saw in the direction of the operator. The riving-knife is adjustable to suit the diameter of the saw, and the knife must vary as the thickness of the saw. The circular saw is further protected where practicable by an adjustable hood which fits over the top of the saw. This class of machine should only be used by the skilled and experienced worker who is fully aware of the danger of the machine and competent to carry out safe practices when using it. He should always use a push-stud to prevent his hand coming in contact with the saw. Nine accidents with wood-planing machines were reported during the year. Overhand planingmachines known as " surfacers," "jointers," or "buzz planers" are very dangerous owing to the necessity of handling the material quite close to the cutters. The earliest types of this machine were fitted with square-cutter blocks, which, owing to the large gap between the knives, caused very severe injuries when an accident occurred. Some years ago the use of the square-cutter block was prohibited by the Department, and it was required that circular-cutter blocks should be used in this type of machine. Although the circularcutter block does not cause so many accidents or such severe ones as the square block, the risk is by no means negligible, and it is still necessary to use a guard with it. The guard should bridge the gap on the table through which the cutter block works and should be such that it will cover the gap during the whole operation of the work in hand. Swing-guards designed to keep covered the part of the cutters which is not actually cutting are not satisfactory. The commonest accident occurs when the back end of the work is just passing beyond the cutter and a spring or weight-operated swing-guard fails to come into action in time to prevent an accident. The problem of providing a reliable guard for overhand planers is not an easy one, and a perfect guard which will provide complete safety and not unduly slow down production is not yet available. Recently Mr. J. D. Filarski, a member of the Factory Inspectorate, Amsterdam, experimented with a safeguard for buzz or overhand planers, and after the third attempt devised a guard which it is claimed is the best of its kind available in Europe. It has proved so satisfactory in service that Amsterdam district factory inspection authorities have prescribed it as the safety device to be used for planing-machines, and recently it has been required in a number of other districts. The device provides, among other advantages, that during ordinary smoothing the used part of the cutters is covered permanently and securely and the dangerous places in front of, under, and behind the work are also covered. The guard is not higher above the bench than the thickness of the work requires, and it falls back on the bench directly the work passes over the cutters. It is therefore impossible to bring the hand inadvertently in contact with the cutters. The Department has imported a Filarski guard from Amsterdam, and it is now being tried out under practical conditions in a Wellington factory. It, is not protected by patents, but is at the disposal of any one who desires to prevent accidents on planing-machines, and if it proves satisfactory there is no reason why it should not be made in New Zealand.

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