1156
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 29

at once sent to the Chief Postmaster, who will forward the application to the Inspector of Post-offices.

602. In acting upon these rules every Postmaster should bear in mind that the object of them is to insure the delivery of every letter to the rightful owner, and, when that is impossible, to secure its speedy return to the writer, through the Dead Letter Office; but in no case should any of the rules be so applied as to prevent the delivery of a letter to a person for whom it may reasonably be believed to be intended.

SURCHARGES.

603. A Postmaster is responsible that insufficiently prepaid articles which pass through his office are correctly surcharged with the proper additional postage. Commercial papers posted for delivery within a town delivery and redirected to an office outside the delivery must be charged another rate of postage. A constant watch must be kept by all officers to prevent the transmission and delivery of insufficiently prepaid correspondence.

604. Unpaid and insufficiently prepaid correspondence from abroad is charged on delivery the deficiency marked by the despatching office. Unpaid or insufficiently prepaid registered letters are to be delivered to addressees without charge. For conversion of francs and centimes into shillings and pence see Rule 511. When the conversion into pence leaves a remainder below 5 centimes, it is not taken into account; for remainder above 5 centimes, 1d. is to be charged. Newspapers, if bearing inscription “Abonnements-poste,” are to be treated as fully prepaid.

605. Supplementary postage due for redirection is collectible on delivery. For instance, if a two-rate registered letter originally posted in New Zealand for town delivery, and prepaid 1d. postage and 2d. registration fee, were subsequently redirected to a country where the rate is 2½d. per 1 oz. it would be charged the simple deficiency. (See Rule 709.)

606. Officers must not strain the regulations in the matter of weighing letters. The plate holding the letter must depress its pillar until it touches the platform before the letter can be said to be chargeable.

607. All surcharges must be boldly marked on the face of the unpaid articles in black ink.

608. Postage-due stamps are to be used for the collection of unpaid or insufficiently paid postage on all classes of correspondence. They are in no case to be received by any Postmaster in payment of postage. Should postage-stamps not recognized for prepayment be used, no account is to be taken of them. This circumstance is indicated by the figure “0” placed by the side of the postage-stamps. Niue, Aitutaki, and Penrhyn Island stamps, or those of the Cook Islands, affixed to correspondence posted in New Zealand are not to be accepted in payment for postage on New Zealand mail-matter, and in cases where they are so affixed they are on no account to be cancelled, whether the article be fully prepaid in New Zealand stamps or not. Letters not sufficiently prepaid in New Zealand postage-stamps are to be treated as such in the usual way. (See Rules 508–511, 536.)

609. An advance of postage-due stamps of various denominations will be made to every Postmaster, who will be required to sign a receipt for the same, and who will be held accountable at any time for the full amount thereof. A sufficient quantity of postage-due stamps must be kept on hand by every Postmaster to meet requirements.