THE INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 130, 3 June 1903, Page 4

THE INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES.

TO THE EDITOR, Sir, —A short time since you published a letter from a correspondent suggesting the Inspector of Factories in New Plymouth should pay visits to those places in his district registered under the Factories Act. Has be done so? From what I can learn he has never since his arrival here attempted to see that the law is being carried out. To my knowledge there are factories in this town with machinery, driven by steam or o'.h.r power, the belts of which are exposed, and thereby a source of great danger to the workmen. It was to lessen dangers of this kind that an Inspector was appointed; but so far as New Tlymouth is concerned there is much to be done still, The various workrooms (where girls are employed) should be visited, and perhaps we should learn that in hardly one instance were the regulations being observed. I know of esses where young girls are engaged sewing in rooms without a particle of warmth ; their fingers are numbed with the cold, j and then employers express astonishment that more' work is not done. Mind you, when the said employers feel that the cold is a little too severe they trot around town (or warm themselves by a cheerful fire in their own room). But the poor girh 1 what do they want with warmth ? I have been informed, on the best authority, that there is a factory in town (employing a large number of hands of both sexes), some of the rooms of which are flooded during rain, and the em-1 ployees have to put boards on the floor to keep thdir feet dry; and in connection with one factory there is a stable with its attendant bad odours close to the workroom. . I am sure the matter will be referred to the Minister for Labour, who, I hive no doubt, will make things a trifle lively for the factory proprietors. I have no hesitation in saying that there are very few factor.e3 in this town observing tha Act.—l am, etc., WOEKBB.