HEATING OF SHOPS AND FACTORIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 180, 25 April 1919, Page 3

HEATING OF SHOPS AND FACTORIES

LABOUR DEPARTMENT'S DECISION. The Lalxrar Department has for some timo considered tlio possibility of framing regulations to govern the heating of shops and factories. Extensive inquiries have been made into what is being' done in Britain, and much valuable information has been obtained. The Department has, however, found it impossible to set forth specific requirements by regulation, and it has, therefore, been compelled to rely upon the discreet enforcement by its inspectors of certain instructions that are being issued. The inspectors have been ordered to 6ee that a temperature of from 55 to GO degrees Fahrenheit is maintained in shops and factories throughout the Dominion. Just what temperature shall be insisted upon (within the limits stated) is a Question to be determined in accordance with the nature of the occupation and cf the climate. The inspectors • will, in addition, have to see that the heating appliances used in factories do not interfere with the purity of the air. The Secretary for Labour said yesterday that the Department would not have abandoned the idea of drawing up regulations if the scheme had not been found to be impracticable.. He added that in one or two cases in which court proceedings had been.taken in New Zealand the magistrate had held that the question of what was adequate heating in any particular ship or factory should be left largely to the discretion of the inspector, provided, of course, that that officer exercised his discretion reasonably. Arrangements had' already been made for the inspection of various shop and factories in Wellington—particularly of shops and' factories where women were employed—in order to ensure their proper heating during the foining winter.