1174

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

[No. 29

729. Letters registered at any office when addressed to any place to which that office makes up mails must be forwarded direct to the delivering office. If the delivering office is a non-permanent office, a receipt from the Registered-letter Delivery-receipt Book should be attached to the letter, and, when signed by the addressee, returned to the office of origin, and refastened to the butt from which it was taken. The serial number is to be entered on the delivery-receipt and its butt, in addition to the name of the addressee and the office of posting. In addition, the green delivery-receipts are to be numbered consecutively throughout the year.

730. As a rule, money-order offices only are used as circulating offices, and at those offices a Sub-office Forward Registered-letter Record, Book 6, is to be kept, in which all forward registered letters should be entered. When a green receipt form does not accompany the forward registered article for delivery from a non-permanent office, a form from the Sub-office Delivery Receipt-book 4 is to be sent, and care should be taken to see that the receipt is duly returned. If the office of destination is a permanent or railway office, no receipt form need be sent, as in such case the Postmaster will use the receipt from Book 2.

Local letter-bills on which registered articles are advised to other offices are to be returned to the despatching office, and retained as a receipt for such letters, except in the case of a country office, which will send them to the Chief Office.

731. Receipt-forms are not to be pinned to registered articles. They must be gummed in all cases.

732. On the arrival of a mail, the addresses of all registered letters received by it must, after the letters have been stamped on the back, be entered by the proper officer in the Forward or the Received Registered-letter Book. In the latter case the receipt (without which no registered letter may be tendered for delivery) must be given with the letter to the clerk or letter-carrier who is to deliver it, and who must at the same time sign the book in the proper place. Registered letters from abroad must be entered and advised according to the particulars of the labels which they bear. In the records of the office the numbers and names of addressees are to be given. Every registered letter received at a sub-office for delivery must be at once entered in Book 7, Sub-office Registered-letter Delivery-book. At sub-offices which are non-permanent or railway offices the addressee, besides signing the receipt, should be asked to sign in the Registered-letter Receipt-book 7.

733. A letter-carrier on delivering a registered letter must require that the receipt be signed by the person to whom the letter is addressed: when this is not practicable, it must be signed by some responsible person known to be permanently connected with the house; or, when the letter is directed to a place of business, by a clerk or other person known to belong to the establishment. The receipt of a lodger must not be taken except for his own letters.

734. When a registered letter is delivered from the post-office, the receipt of the ordinary messenger of the person to whom it is addressed will suffice, provided the messenger is known to be authorized, or produces written authority from the addressee. Registered letters which cannot be delivered at once—as, for instance, those to be kept till called for—must be placed in the locker with the receipts attached (see Rule 702), and the proper card with the address and number of the letter must be placed in the box or pigeon-hole where the ordinary letters await delivery, so that the delivering officer may see that there is a registered letter in the locker. The registered letters in the locker must be compared with the cards daily.