Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY. JUNE 8, 1899. Flax Mills.

Manawatu Herald, 8 June 1899, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY. JUNE 8, 1899. Flax Mills.

». We have heard a great deal said about supervision of factories and machinery but the outcome has been of little use in preventing accidents. Theoretically loose-pullies are correct but we feel certain, and others who know the class of men engaged in the flaxmills also think, that the introduction of loose-pullies will lead to far more disaster than to the security of the workers. Without wishing" to disparage the hands employed at the mills it must be borne in mind that they are men and lads who have not been accustomed to machinery, some of them seeing machinery in motion for the first time on entering a mill, and have thus had no proper training as how to deal with it. At the start they are scrupulously careful, but a few weeks familiarity breeds contempt and then most utter recklessness is shown instead. At the last inquest held in this town, the unfortunate man who was killed was only going to do what he had previously done at other times quite safely, which was to do something to the belting while in motion, it was however once too often. He knew of the danger that was run in a like manner by other hands as he trusted this accident to himself would prove a warning to a feeder whom he had twice cautioned against the reckless habit he had of walking along a wooden trough which the belts ran in to get to some other part of the building though the belts were working

along them at the time. There are many tales told of similar foolishness and recklessness, one, which we have been told on good authority, beating all others for gross stupidity, and that i is, in one of the mills a man rides along the moving belt till he gets to the pulley and then jumps off. If men will do these things, and will try to shift belting rather than lose a couple of minutes for the engine to stop, loose pullies will be no source of protection. Every miller should have directions in his mill that no belt should be touched until the belt had ceksed moving and then the greatest danger would be removed. At the inquest there was a difference in the statements as to whose duty it was to touch the belting, the feeder declaring it was his duty only that any one near it did the work. This however was denied by the owners. If should however be made clear that no one in the mill should enter the engine room or touch any of the machinery or belting except duly appointed persons, and these persons should be obliged to attire themselves in overalls as all men employed in the foundries in Wellington wear. Such a suit is close and compact and offers less chance of any portion being caught in apyway in the machinery. We fear that more accidents will arise in the future owing to the adoption of safeguards in the plant on which too much reliance will be placed, as supposing that something was being done at the stripper, the belt being on the loose pulley, and the engine was working driving the scutcher, and the vibration, of which there is a great deal, should have worked the belting upon the drivingpulley what a fearful position the worker at the stripper would be placed in. The department by ordering the particular men to touch the machinery, the clothing they were to wear, and the stoppage of the engine when shifting belts would do more for the safety of the employees than by ordering loose pullies to be fixed.