2

H.—lsa

Boilers inspected. During the year 5,379 inspections have been made and certificates issued for them. Nearly every district has been visited, and, with the exception of the Marlborough and some parts of the Auckland Districts, our boiler-inspection work is practically complete to date. The machinery in motion at all works visited has all been duly inspected at such annual visits. There are some splendid installations of machinery now in New Zealand. Government Boilers and Machinery. The boilers at most of the Government institutions have been examined, as wejl as the other machinery appliances installed, and include four lifts, nine Pelton"and/>ther water-wheels, one gas-engine, two oil-engines. A considerable amount of time was occupied in performing these inspections, for which no fees were charged. Certificates were issued for all of these inspections. Return No. I gives full particulars of boilers and classes of machinery, together with the fees for these inspections. Defects in Boilers and Fittings. A long list of defects in boilers and fittings are set out in Return No. 2. A great many of these were considered very dangerous, and show clearly the need of rigid inspections by skilled and experienced men. Even in the short space of a year, between the annual inspection-visits, dangerous defects develop in most unexpected places in steam-boilers. The total number of defects discovered in boilers and fittings is 1,883. Seventy-four of these were dangerous. 2 sets out these defects in detail. New Boilers. The number of new boilers added to our books during the year total 388. The horse-power of these amounts to 4,971 : 223 of these, totalling 3,094-horse power, were made in the colony, and 165, totalling 1,877-horse power, were imported. The following table shows the number and horse-power of these boilers, and the districts to which they have gone : —

Gas- and Water-driven Machinery, Lifts, and Machinery Inspections. The total inspections made of this class of machinery amount to 3,397, and are made up as follows: Gas-engines, 861; oil-engines, 573; motors and hoists, 1,200; machinery inspections, 763. Fencing of Machinery. Return No. 4 gives full particulars of what has been done in the direction of guarding dangerous parts of machinery Examination of Engine-drivers. This branch of the work of the Department is an ever-increasing one. These examinations are now held all over the country, to §uit candidates, at suitable places outside the centres named in the regulations. These places are chosen as being central for that of the district in which the examination is held. This year 1,065 candidates came up for examination, and of this number 777 candidates sucessfully passed these examinations, and 288 failed to pass,

Auckland ... Hawke's Bay Taranaki Wellington . Marlborough Nelson North Nelson South Westland Canterbury Timaru Otago Southland ... District. Colonial. Imported. Total. Horse- , Horse- , T , HorseNumber. power Number. . power Number. power 98 949 48 497 146 1,446 17 188 10 108 27 296 6 63 6 25 12 88 50 716 49 415 99 1,131 1 15 1 3 2 18 1 40 1 10 2 50 8 433 ... ... 8 433 9 196 2 10 11 206 23 296 20 427 43 723 5 77 5 77 3 74 11 57 14 131 7 124 12 248 L9 372 223 3,094 165 1,877 388 4,971