THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
725

of exchange, the several Post Offices of the Union
being able to send reciprocally, in transit through
intermediate countries, closed mails as well as corre-
spondence in open mails, according to the wants of
the traffic and the exigencies of the Postal Service.
Closed mails and correspondence sent in open mails
must always be forwarded by the most rapid routes
at the command of the Post Offices concerned.
When several routes offer the same advantages of
speed, the despatching Office shall have the right of
choosing the route to be adopted.
It is obligatory to make up closed mails whenever
the number of letters and other postal packets is of
a nature to hinder the operations of the transit
Office, according to the declaration of the Office
interested.
The despatching Office shall pay to the Office of
the territory providing the transit the sum of two
francs per kilogramme for letters and 25 centimes
per kilogramme for the several articles specified in
Article IV., net weight, whether the transit takes
place in closed mails or in open mails.
This payment may be increased to 4 francs for
letters and to 50 centimes for the articles specified
in Article IV. when a transit is provided of more than
750 kilometres in length over the territory of one
Office.
It is understood, however, that in any case in
which the transit is already actually gratuitous or
subject to lower rates, those conditions shall be
maintained.
Whenever a transit shall take place by sea over a
distance exceeding 300 nautical miles within the dis-
trict of the Union, the office by or at the expense of
which this sea service is performed shall have the
right to a payment of the expenses attending this
transport.
The members of the Union engage to reduce those
expenses as much as possible. The payment which
the Office providing the sea conveyance may claim
on this account from the despatching Office shall not
exceed 6 francs 50 centimes per kilogramme for
letters, and 50 centimes per kilogramme for the
articles specified in Article IV. (net weight.)
In no case shall these expenses be higher than
those now paid. Consequently, no payment shall be
made upon the sea routes on which nothing is paid at
the present time.
In order to ascertain the weight of the correspon-
dence forwarded in transit, whether in closed mails
or in open mails, there shall be taken, at periods
which shall be determined upon by common consent,
an account of such correspondence during two weeks.
Until revised, the result of that account shall serve
as the basis of the accounts of the Post Offices be-
tween themselves.
Each Office may demand a revision,-

1. In case of any important modification in the
   direction of the correspondence:
2. At the expiration of a year after the date of the
   last account.
   The provisions of the present article are not appli-
   cable to the Indian Mail, nor to the mails conveyed
   across the territory of the United States of America
   by the railways between New York and San Fran-
   cisco. Those services shall continue to form the
   object of special arrangements between the Post
   Offices concerned.

ARTICLE XI.
The relations of the countries of the Union with
countries foreign to the Union shall be regulated by
the separate conventions which now exist or which
may be concluded between them.
The rates of postage chargeable for the conveyance
beyond the limits of the Union shall be determined

by those conventions; they shall be added, in such
case, to the Union rate.
In conformity with the stipulations of Article IX.,
the Union rate shall be appropriated in the following
manner:-

1. The despatching office of the Union shall keep
   the whole of the Union rate for the prepaid corre-
   spondence addressed to foreign countries.
2. The receiving office of the Union shall keep the
   whole of the Union rate for the unpaid corre-
   spondence originating in foreign countries.
3. The office of the Union which exchanges closed
   mails with foreign countries shall keep the whole
   of the Union rate for the paid correspondence
   originating in foreign countries and for the
   unpaid correspondence addressed to foreign
   countries.
   In the cases mentioned under the numbers 1, 2,
   and 3, the Office which exchanges the mails is not
   entitled to any payment for transit. In all the other
   cases, the transit rates shall be paid according to the
   stipulations of Article X.

ARTICLE XII.
The exchange of letters with value declared and of
Post Office money orders shall form the subject of
ulterior arrangements between the various countries
or groups of countries composing the Union.

ARTICLE XIII.
The Post Offices of the various countries compos-
ing the Union are competent to draw up, by common
consent, in the form of detailed regulations, all the
measures of order and detail necessary with a view
to the execution of the present Treaty. It is under-
stood that the stipulations of these detailed regula-
tions may always be modified by the common consent
of the Offices of the Union.
The several Offices may make amongst themselves
the necessary arrangements on the subject of ques-
tions which do not concern the Union generally;
such as the regulations of exchange at the frontier,
the determination of radii in adjacent countries
within which a lower rate of postage may be taken,
the conditions of the exchange of Post Office money
orders, and of letters with declared value, &c., &c.

ARTICLE XIV.
The stipulations of the present Treaty do not in-
volve any alteration in the inland postal legislation
of any country, nor any restriction on the right of
the contracting parties to maintain and to conclude
treaties, as well as to maintain and establish more
restricted unions with a view to a progressive im-
provement of postal relations.

ARTICLE XV.
There shall be organized, under the name of the
International Office of the General Postal Union, a
central office, which shall be conducted under the sur-
veillance of a Postal Administration to be chosen by
the Congress, and the expenses of which shall be
borne by all the Offices of the contracting States.
This Office shall be charged with the duty of col-
lecting, publishing, and distributing information of
every kind which concerns the International Postal
Service; of giving, at the request of the parties con-
cerned, an opinion upon questions in dispute; of
making known proposals for modifying the detailed
regulations; of notifying alterations adopted; of
facilitating operations relating to international ac-
counts, especially in the cases referred to in Article
X. foregoing; and in general of considering and
working out all questions in the interest of the Postal
Union.