Jan. 18.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 135

These messages are not to be permitted to interfere with or delay the transmission of the midnight cable news.

Offices closed on Sundays or statutory holidays may not be opened for Press purposes on those days under any but exceptional circumstances such as those above described.

TELEGRAMS FORWARDED BY MEMBERS OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Members of the General Assembly may send ordinary telegrams at the following rates, viz.:

For the first thirty-six words or any fraction thereof, including address and signature .. .. .. .. .. .. .. s. d. 0 6
For every four words or fraction of four words after the first thirty-six words .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 1

There is no “urgent” code for these rates.

Telegrams from members of the General Assembly presented on Sundays at offices where Sunday rates are chargeable are to be accepted at the ordinary rates for such messages.

GENERAL RULES FOR COUNTING TELEGRAMS BETWEEN PLACES WITHIN NEW ZEALAND.

1. Telegrams are charged for according to tariff rates as shown in the Guide; and all that the sender wishes to transmit to his correspondent is charged for except service instructions, such as the following, viz.: “Urgent,” “Reply paid,” “Collect,” “Carriage paid,” &c.

2. Telegrams may be written either in plain or code language. A plain message must be written wholly in English, and may not contain illegitimate combinations or words or abbreviations contrary to the usage of the language—Webster’s Dictionary being taken as the standard.

3. Combinations of two or more words are charged for as separate words, but compound words found in Webster’s Dictionary, joined by a hyphen, or separated by an apostrophe, and which are so written by the sender, are counted and charged for as single words. The cardinal and ordinal numbers up to and including ninety-nine and ninety-ninth, respectively, and the words “onepenny,” “twopence,” &c., up to and including “elevenpence,” are counted and treated as one word each when so written. Combinations which usually count as two words such as “Courtcart,” but which, in order not to destroy the sense of the message, must in particular instances be shown as one word, will in future be indicated as double words in the check, thus: /D1, D2, &c.

4. Groups of letters or figures count five characters to the word, plus one word for any excess up to five characters. The Department does not guarantee the correct transmission of figures.

5. Code words, whether genuine or artificial, must be formed of syllables capable of pronunciation, according to the usage of one of the following languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Maori, Portuguese, or Spanish. Words in code language must not be longer than ten characters of the Morse alphabet. Combinations not fulfilling these conditions, or those which may be formed by the union of two or more words in plain language contrary to the usage of the language, are charged in accordance with Rule 4.

6. All names composed of more than one word (with the exception of those mentioned in Rule 7, and any entitled to pass as one word under Rule 3) are to be counted according to the number of separate words contained in the name, howsoever the same may be expressed.

7. Names like MacDonald, McDougal, O’Neil, De Morgan, De la Rue, should be counted as one word each, but double surnames, such as Hunter-Brown, must be counted as two words, whether written with a hyphen or without. The prefix “St.” always counts as part of a word, but when written in full it should be counted as a separate word.

Official designations are to be counted according to the number of separate words of which they are composed: thus, “Under-Secretary, Public Works,” to be counted as three words, “Under-Secretary” being an admissible compound word according to the standard dictionary.

8. The name of any post-office, public telegraph-office, or railway telegraph-office in New Zealand will pass as a single word in either the address or text of any inland message.

9. Each separate letter or figure is charged for as one word; groups of five ciphers or a fractional part of five ciphers count as one word; groups exceeding five ciphers are counted at the rate of five ciphers to the word, and any fractional portion remaining is to be counted as one word. Words not forming part of any authorised language count five characters to the word. Where a fraction is inserted in a group of figures, such fraction is regarded as terminating the word—as, 31⅞9, three words. In groups of mixed letters and figures each letter or figure or each collection of letters or figures up to five characters is counted as a single word.

10. Under the above rule, abbreviations such as “cife,” “faq,” “fob,” “gfaq,” “am,” “pm,” &c., are accepted as single words.

11. When a group of figures is preceded or followed by a letter, the letter is counted as a separate word: thus, A104, or 104A, each count as two words. Letters added to figures to form ordinal numbers are each counted as a figure: thus, “1st” counts as one word, “1000th” as two words.

12. The two principal punctuation signs, viz., full stop and comma, when used as such, are not to be counted, but signalled free of charge. Other punctuation signs and underlines are counted and charged for as one word each; while parentheses, brackets, or inverted commas are counted and charged for as one word each pair.

13. Bars of division, or full stops representing decimal points, used in the formation of numbers, or in groups of mixed characters, are counted as figures. The divisional bar when used with letters also counts as a letter in the group in which it may occur.

14. All figures should be expressed in Arabic characters; if Roman numerals are required to be signalled, two extra words are charged for each group of five (or less) of such figures.