APRIL 3.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1097

at the Secretary’s office and payment has been authorized. This does not apply to railway fares. In all cases the vouchers must show the office from which an officer departs and that at which he arrives.

257. Claims for refund of any gratuities paid by officers on transfer or travelling on public service, to stewards, waiters, &c., will not be recognized by the Department. Sleeping-berth accommodation on railway-trains is to be paid for out of travelling-allowance. The following officers only of this Department are authorized, when travelling on public business, to engage deck berths or deck cabins: The Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, and the Chief Telegraph Engineer. Cab-fares are payable by the Department when officers are travelling on departmental business, but care must be exercised not to incur any such expense unnecessarily. In the larger towns trams must be used.

258. The Department will not pay travelling-expenses to officers undergoing departmental examinations at offices other than their own. As a general rule such examinations can be conducted under proper supervision at local offices.

259. Official railway season tickets are to be returned to the Secretary immediately they expire.

260. Mail contractors are required to provide free passages for postal officers of the Department travelling on postal inspecting or special duty, but not for telegraph officers, or for any officers on their way to a place for relieving duty or in process of removal. Passage-orders are to be issued for such officers.

261. Ordinary business discretion must be exercised by responsible officers in despatching their subordinates on transfer to their destinations. In committing the Department to the paying of travelling-allowances, local officers must ascertain that those to whom they issue orders for removal are able to continue their respective journeys throughout their entire length without such stoppage as customary foresight and reference to a time-table would avoid. Passage-orders should be provided for the complete journey if possible.

262. Officers relieving Postmasters must furnish the nearest agent of the Bank of New Zealand with specimens of their signatures, for the purpose of verifying the countersignatures to Treasury cheques and the signatures to cheques drawn on the Postmaster’s Deposit Account.

263. The attention of all officers is called to Regulation 4 (given hereunder) of the Civil Service Regulations, dated the 23rd January, 1873, and it is directed that the provisions of the regulation be strictly adhered to:—

“Fees or Remuneration not to be received.

“4. No fee, reward, or remuneration of any kind whatsoever beyond his salary shall be received and kept for his own use by any officer for the performance of any service for the Government. All fees received by officers attending in their official character under a subpoena or order to give evidence or to produce papers in any Court shall be paid by such officers into the general revenue, and such officers shall duly enter and account for all fees received by them for the performance of such duty, and shall transmit to the head of their branch an account and vouchers of all the necessary expenses, if any, incurred by them in the performance of such duty.”

264. A relieving Postmaster is not entitled to the fees or commissions payable to a Postmaster; but in cases where the latter is absent on extended leave, exceeding a period of three months, the relieving officer may claim fees and commission. When the Postmaster whom he is relieving is also a Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and such duties are for the