APRIL 3.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1173

717. Every article received in a registered-letter bag or packet must be treated as a registered letter, the absence of any indication of its having been registered or its non-entry on the list not exempting it from this treatment.

718. If a registered letter be found open or imperfectly sealed the circumstance and full address of the letter must be reported, and the letter must then be closed with the authorized sealing-label in the presence of a second officer.

719. Officers despatching registered articles are responsible for making all the entries required by the headings of the registered-letter list. It is a serious error to omit the number or the name of an office of either origin or destination.

720. Registered articles despatched from one chief office to another, or to foreign offices, must be enclosed in the special registered bags or packets. They are to be counted and checked by a second officer, who is required to initial the letter-bill or list, as the case may be, and to witness the sealing of the bag.

721. Lead seals are to be used in sealing registered-letter bags.

722. If it should be necessary to delete or alter the entry of any registered letter on the letter-bill or list, the alteration must be attested by the initials of the officer who makes it; but, when practicable, it is better to substitute a fresh bill or list with the entries correctly made.

723. On receipt of a registered-letter bag or packet, it must be carefully examined to ascertain that it has not been tampered with, and that it bears an impression of the seal of the office from which it was despatched. It must be opened apart from all other bags and packets, and at a table where there is no possibility of a letter being secreted. It must then be turned inside out and the letters checked with the registered-letter list and letter-bill. Should the list or letter-bill be missing, careful search must be made, and the folds of every letter or packet examined. The empty registered-letter bag or packet must not be put aside until the examination of the list and letters has been completed.

724. The officer who despatches or who opens a bag containing registered letters must so completely satisfy himself as to the agreement between the entries on the list and on the bill and the registered letters to which they refer as to be able, if required, to make affidavit on the subject. In case of any discrepancy, a second officer must at once be called to certify to the articles received, and the fact reported to the Postmaster, or to the officer in charge of the mail-room, or other deputy of the Postmaster.

725. It is forbidden to sign a received registered-letter list in discharge of the responsibility of the despatching office without first checking the individual entries thereon against the letters actually received.

726. To official remittance letters, and to all other official registered letters, registration labels must be affixed, and the letters advised in the same way as those registered by the public. Postmasters must in every case carefully remove the used registration label from remittance envelopes and bags.

727. Packets containing money-order and savings-bank accounts addressed to Chief Postmasters, or telegraph or telephone accounts addressed to the Chief Accountant, Clearing-room, Wellington, are not to be registered unless special instructions to that effect are given, but must be entered in the letter-bill to the chief post-office in the space headed “Instructions.”

728. Letters containing telegraph money-orders must be registered.

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