New Zealand Gazette – 1904 – No. 22

Page 799

✨ Telegraph Transmission Regulations

Mar. 10.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 799

Telegrams may be posted at a Letter-box.

Persons not wishing to send to a telegraph-office may post a telegram in an envelope addressed “Telegram Immediate,” in a wall- or pillar-box, or at a receiving office or sub-post-office. Telegrams so posted are sent on by the next collection or the next mail to the telegraph-office to which they are addressed, or to the nearest telegraph-office, and are thence transmitted and delivered free of extra charge, provided the proper amounts for transmission and for porterage (if any) have been prepaid. The time of arrival at the telegraph-office is regarded as the time of receipt from the public. Telegrams may also be posted not enclosed in envelopes, and when so posted they will be treated in the same manner.
Telegraph forms, and envelopes having the words (printed in red) “Telegram for transmission to the Officer in Charge Telegraph-station,” can be procured at post-offices in towns where there is no telegraph-station.

Order of Priority of Transmission.

Replies may be prepaid.

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 on application being made 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 for Transmission Charges.

Telegrams may be accepted 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.
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. The sender of a “collect” telegram is at liberty to direct that delivery shall be conditional on the addressee first paying the charges. In such cases the words “Delivery conditional” must be inserted in the instructions and paid for.

Repetition at Request of Sender to Insure Accuracy.

Telegrams may 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 cipher, or according to a preconcerted code, should always be repeated.

Repetition at Request of Addressee to Detect Errors.

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 happen that the telegram has been incorrectly transmitted. The request for repetition must be in writing, and may be abbreviated to underlining the necessary words and adding the request—as, for example, “Please repeat”—on the delivered copy.

Inland Multiple Telegrams.

Prepaid telegrams addressed on one form to more than one person in the same place or in different places, or to one person at different residences in the same place, may be accepted for transmission within the colony. If the telegrams be addressed to different places, or are written on separate forms, both or all will be treated as distinct messages, and charged full rates. In multiple telegrams for the same place, each address must be complete in itself; consequently the office of destination will appear as many times as there are names of addressees. The text, and all the addresses, and the signature will be counted and charged for as a single message, with an additional fee of 3d. per address for each copy excepting the first. “Urgent” telegrams may be accepted at double the above tariff. The number of addresses will be indicated to the office of address by the insertion of “Multiple [No. of addresses]” in the “Instructions”; but this information will be omitted from the messages actually delivered, which will show one address only unless the sender has inserted and paid for the instruction “Communicate all addresses.” Multiple telegrams cannot be sent “collect.”