WATERSIDE COMMISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1918, Page 5

WATERSIDE COMMISSION.

j FURTHER EVIDENCE. j By TelegTaph.—'Press Association. Dunedin, La3t Night. At the Waterside Accidents Commission Captain Thomson, .harbormaster, > agreed that all gear on the ships and hulks of harbor boards should be inspected by a competent Government inspector. Wm. Smith, in charge of the Union Company's industrial department, said the company kept a record of all accidents at cargo work in Suncdin, or one in every 1230 men employed, while at Port Chalmers there were two accidents at cargo, representing one to every CSSI men employed. There were 41 accidents at repairs and works at Port Chalmers, representing one to eyery 559 men employed. The company's accidents at Dunedin and Port Chalmers totalled 85. Witness quoted statistics to show that the percentage of street and railway accidents in Britain was greater than the percentage of accidents on the waterfronts of the Dominion. Captain Corbett, foreman stevedore for John Mill and Co., said that last year the firm had 13 accidents, an average of one for every 154 men employed, or one for every 5434 tons handled. Witness illustrated a suggestion for putting on or oil' beams or hatches. John Edward Galbraith, superintendent stevedore for the Shaw, Savill and Albion Co., said that last year the company had three accidents, or one to every 3340 men employed, or one to every 11,.939 tons handled. There was plenty of gear, all supplied to the ships in England. He had noticed. Government inspectors on board, but doubted their authority, as the gear was passed by the Board of Trade.