1070

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

No. 29

(e.) Registration.—To register; and to be sworn and attested and to be under discipline as laid down for Territorials.

55. Married women, widows excepted, are not eligible for permanent appointments, and women must resign when they marry. A married woman may, however, hold the position of Postmistress or Telephonist at any non-permanent office under circumstances approved of by the Minister.

56. The maximum retiring-age for women of sixty years applies to officers on the classification and the extra-classification staffs.

57. The establishment record (cards or book) must contain the fullest information upon all matters connected with the staff of any district. It is to be kept at each chief post-office, and, with respect to their own staff, by the Officers in Charge at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington. Cards are used at these offices and at first-grade post-offices. The record must be carefully and regularly posted up, and all notifications from the General Post Office duly recorded.

58. The Officers in Charge at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington are required to keep a record of uncombined telephone-offices, and to inform Chief Postmasters of any proposed change thereat, so that the usual form of recommendation may be sent to the Secretary. Chief Postmasters must inform the Officers in Charge of any change of telephonists at combined offices. On the opening of a telephone-office the Telegraph Engineer recommends the appointment of the Telephonist, and forwards the declarations to the Chief Postmaster. Every subsequent recommendation of appointment of a Telephonist while the office remains open will be made by the Chief Postmaster after conference with the Telegraph Engineer. The Chief Postmaster will have custody of all declarations of Postmasters or Telephonists, and will also be the medium of communication on any desired alteration in the status or management of any office. (See Rules 24 and T. 246.)

59. The best arrangements possible must be made for witnessing statutory declarations of Telephonists, either by a Justice of the Peace or by a Postmaster authorized by warrant under the Governor’s hand to take such declarations. It is absolutely necessary that such declarations should be in the possession of the Department before offices are opened. Such being the case, Telegraph Engineers and other managing officers can greatly expedite the business by sending blank forms of declaration forward, so that proposed Telephonists may have an opportunity of signing them before an officer arrives to open the office.

60. No Postmaster may take statutory declarations unless he is authorized to do so by warrant, and then only in respect of the office for which he is named. When a Postmaster leaves the office for which he is authorized by warrant his power to take statutory declarations immediately lapses. Otherwise a Postmaster has no more power than any other person to act as a witness. If the title “Postmaster” is printed at the foot of a form as that of a witness, a Postmaster may act as a witness without demur. In recommending on form P.O. 137 the appointment of a Postmaster at an office at which the previous Postmaster was authorized to take and receive statutory declarations, Chief Postmasters will give the age of the person recommended. Persons under twenty-one years of age cannot be appointed to take and receive statutory declarations.

61. Customs declarations made before officers of the Department are to be attested by the Chief Postmaster (or Postmaster) only, or, in his absence, by the officer next in rank. In the