MAY 29.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 869

Order of Priority of Transmission.

13. Telegrams will be transmitted in the following order of priority :—
    (1.) Telegrams of the Government marked urgent.
    (2.) Service telegrams.
    (3.) Urgent private telegrams.
    (4.) Non-urgent (ordinary) private telegrams.

Replies may be prepaid.

14. The cost of a reply may be prepaid, and a reply-form will then be delivered to the addressee, who will be at liberty to send another telegram of the value prepaid, from any Telegraph Office, at any time within six weeks. If the form be not used its value will be refunded to the sender of the original telegram on his applying within six weeks to the Accountant, General Post Office, and on the production of the form. A reply-form need not necessarily be used for a reply, but may be used to prepay any single inland message.

Collect Telegrams—Sender responsible or Transmission Charges.

15. Telegrams may be taken from the sender with the word “Collect” written thereon in the space for instructions, and in such case the value of the telegram will be collected from the receiver; but, in the event of the department being unable to collect the amount, the sender will be held responsible for the due payment thereof, and in such case, if the sender fails to pay the charges upon being requested to do so, the Officer in Charge of the Telegraph Office at which the telegram was delivered for despatch may in his own name, in any Court of competent jurisdiction, sue for and recover from the sender of such telegram all charges due for the transmission thereof.

16. The sender of a “Collect” telegram shall, if requested to do so, lodge the cost of it. Any difference between the sum required and that lodged will be settled, or any refund will be made, upon delivery of the telegram.

Repetition at Request of Sender to Insure Accuracy.

17. Telegrams can be repeated, if the sender desires it, by being signalled back from office to office. No copy is, in such case, given to the sender. The charge for repetition is one-half the ordinary tariff; a fraction of a penny being reckoned as a penny. Telegrams containing mercantile quotations or figures, and telegrams written in cypher, or according to a preconcerted code, should always be repeated.

Repetition at Request of Addressee to Detect Errors.

18. If the receiver of a telegram doubts its accuracy, he may have it repeated by paying half the amount paid for its transmission to him, fractions of a penny being reckoned as a penny. Should he require only a portion of the message to be repeated, a payment must be made at the rate of ½d. for each word embraced in the repetition. For example, if 15 words in a message of 30 words are to be repeated the payment would be eightpence. The minimum charge, however, for repetition (even of a single word) is threepence. The money will be refunded if it should turn out that the telegram has been incorrectly transmitted.

Extent of Free Delivery.

19. Except as notified in the printed list of telegraph offices published from time to time in the Post and Telegraph Guide, all telegrams shall be delivered free of charge within a distance of one mile by the nearest practicable road of the office to which they may be transmitted by wire.

For any distance not exceeding half a mile beyond the free delivery s. d.
0 6
For any distance over half a mile but not exceeding one mile beyond
the free delivery 1 0
For any distance over one mile but not exceeding two miles beyond
the free delivery 1 6

The foregoing charges provide for ordinary delivery only. For telegrams to be delivered by special messenger, the cost of such delivery shall be added and paid for. If required to be delivered beyond the distance of three miles, all moneys disbursed in payment of cab-fares, omnibus-fares, horse-hire, porterage, or any other expenses incurred in delivery, shall be charged and paid. All telegrams shall bear any expenses incurred to defray ferriage and tolls. To prevent the non-delivery or detention of telegrams, when the sender of a telegram objects or refuses to pay the above charges, or any of them, the telegram will be posted immediately on its arrival at the office to which it is transmitted by wire.

Sender responsible for Delivery Charges.

20. The sender of a telegram shall be responsible for the payment of all charges incurred in the delivery, and, if the sender fails to pay the charges upon being requested to do so, the Officer in Charge of the Telegraph Office at which the telegram was delivered for despatch may, in his own name, in any Court of competent jurisdiction, sue for and recover from the sender thereof the charges due on such telegram.

Redirected Telegrams.

21. Telegrams redirected to a corrected address are liable to an additional charge of 6d. if delivery can be effected from the original receiving office, but if the corrected address requires the message to be re-telegraphed from the receiving office, a charge will be made equal to the original amount paid.

Fee for Search.

22. On the application of the sender or the addressee of any telegram, search will be made by the department for the copies thereof in its possession. A fee of five shillings shall accompany each application for search, or for search with copies, so as to cover cost of the search and the copy or copies required. Any excess or insufficiency in this amount, determined by the length of time occupied in the search, will be adjusted before copies are handed to applicants. The rate of payment for search is two shillings and sixpence per hour or fraction thereof. For copies of inland telegrams a charge of sixpence each will be made, and for copies of cable telegrams fivepence for every hundred words or fraction thereof. No application is entertained unless at the request of the sender or of the person to whom any telegram is addressed.

23. In the case of allegation of error on the part of the department in the transmission of any telegram, no inquiry will be made unless the telegram was a repetition-paid telegram, or unless a fee equal to half the cost of the original message is paid.