428
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
hour will be given for the transmission of Press tele-
grams, and so on throughout the day till all telegrams,
whether Press or Ordinary, shall have been cleared
out.
18. When two Stations are engaged in the trans-
mission of a telegram, it is strictly prohibited for a
third Station to intervene during the transmission of
the said telegram; and no officer is allowed at any
time to interrupt the working of the line by holding
down the key, and thus throwing a current upon the
line.
19. Disputes between Stations as to the possession
of the line are strictly prohibited, and no officer shall
knowingly take charge of the line while he is aware
that another Station holds a telegram of prior code,
namely: U. T., or L. T., or a telegram of an earlier
date than his own, unless he be specially authorized
through some extraordinary circumstances to trans-
mit his telegram.
The rule is to leave the line for the prior telegram.
20. In cases of press of business or delay, or when
the lines are working badly, or when there is no
chance of giving a distant Station communication by
translating without causing considerable delay,
officers are bound to transmit all telegrams so pre-
sented, bearing a delay of 30 minutes.
21. No officer is allowed to disconnect the wires
or to change the connections at the testing boards of
any of the Stations without a direct order from the
Telegraphic Engineer, the Electrician, or their repre-
sentative, except under the following circumstances.
22. When communication is totally interrupted
with the Chief Station the officer in charge during
the time of the interruption shall use his utmost
endeavours to keep open communication with as
many of the Stations as possible consistent with fair
working.
23. In the case of an interruption occurring on the
line, the officer in charge of a Station shall ascertain
whether the fault is on one side of the Station only,
and if so, on which side the fault shall have occurred.
24. If the Station be Timaru for example let the
officer put earth on the Dunedin side of the line at
the testing board and call Ch Ch, for a period of not
longer than ten minutes; should no answer be
obtained, let him then remove the earth wire, join up
the Dunedin wire again to the instrument, and place
the earth wire on the Christchurch side of the line,
and call D. N. or O. U.
25. Should he be able to communicate with Dune-
din, he will ascertain whether that Station is in com-
munication with the Chief Station, and if not he shall
immediately forward an L. T. telegram to the Tele-
graphic Engineer, Electrician, and General Manager,
advising them of the interruption, and he shall for-
ward all telegrams' for the Northern Stations via
Dunedin, till the fault on the North portion of the
line shall have been removed.
26. When communication is totally interrupted
between two Stations, the officers in charge of those
Stations shall call each other, at intervals of not
longer than one hour during the appointed time for
business, so long as the interruption shall continue.
This rule must be strictly adhered to in order to
prevent delay, so soon as any repairs on the line may
be effected.
27. When a Station has been calling another for
more than fifteen minutes without obtaining a reply,
the officer in charge shall carry out instructions con-
tained in Rules twenty-four (24) and twenty-five (25)
Schedule B. of these rules and regulations.
Should the delay have occurred through the care-
lessness or negligence of another Station, the circum-
stances of the case must be immediately entered in
the diary, and a report, stating when the delay com-
menced and terminated, shall be forwarded to the
General Manager and Electrician.
28. Should any Station interfere with the commu-
nication of the line by holding down the instrument
key, disconnecting or changing the Station wires,
putting on earth, or otherwise interrupt the working
of the line, the full circumstances of the case are to
be entered in the diary, and a report sent as early as
possible to the Electrician and General Manager.
29. In calling a Station the following course must
be strictly adhered to:-
First: Give the call signal
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Secondly: Give the Station call three times.
Thirdly: Give the letter F, meaning from.
Fourthly: Give your own Station call. Let this
be continued till an answer is received from the
Station called.
Thus, suppose Dunedin be calling Lyttelton, first
give the call signal as above, three times. Then send
L.N., L.N., L.N., f., D.N., until L.N. answers by
replying L.N., "here."
30. Should a Station be engaged when another
Station is calling, let the officer in charge embrace
the earliest opportunity of answering and giving the
signal "Wait" . . . . . . . . . . . . together with the number
of minutes his Station is likely to be engaged.
31. Should a Station continue calling, after having
received the signal "Wait," let the officer in charge
of the Station called conclude at once that the calling
Station has an Urgent Telegram, and let him as
speedily as possibly give "Wait" to any other Station
he may be engaged with, and place himself in com-
munication with the Station continuing to call.
Should this latter Station have continued calling
without necessity, after having received the signal
"Wait," and so have interfered with the working of
another Station unnecessarily, let the full particulars
of the case be entered in the diary, and a report be
forwarded to the General Manager as early as
possible.
32. When a Station has received the signal
"Wait," the officers of that Station should not
continue calling unless they have telegrams bearing
the codes of L. T. or U. T.; and if, having given
their code, they still get "Wait," they must remain
without further calling till the other Station an-
nounces its readiness to take the proferred telegram.
Should any unreasonable delay occur on the part
of the other Station, the full particulars of the case
must be entered in the diary, and a report forwarded
to the General Manager as early as possible.
33. No abbreviations are on any account to be
used in the transmission of telegrams, as abbrevia-
tions are frequently the cause of errors.
34. Casual cyphers, proper names, and doubtful
words occurring in ordinary telegrams, must be
repeated back by the receiver when acknowledging
the receipt of such telegrams.
Take the following case as an example:-
Nat. Smith, Dunedin--
.....
Buy 2000 bushels oats, 7s., gunnies, wanted.
Rob. Jones.
This telegram should be acknowledged thus:-
No. 19, Nat., 2000, 7s. gunnies, Rob . . . - . . . . . .
This rule must be rigidly enforced.
Receiving or Counter Clerks should recommend
the senders of telegrams to pay for repetition when
many figures or cyphers occur in a telegram to insure
accuracy.
35. All Government telegrams written in cypher
must be repeated back from the Receiving Station to
insure accuracy in transmission.
This rule admits of no exception.
36. When several telegrams are presented for
transmission about the same time, and any of these
telegrams shall be of considerable length, then no