be fastened down with the strap, so as to steady the contents; and when bags are used they must be tied close to the contents. Trays should invariably be sent with their corresponding baskets. The use of unnecessarily large receptacles, or of an unnecessary number, must be avoided.

811. Canvas address labels must in every case be attached to hampers or wrappers, and the use of wooden labels for addressing such parcel-post receptacles is forbidden. When despatching parcel-hampers fitted with the Longdin fastener, the labels should always be threaded on the centre catch, and on no account hung on the hooks.

812. Officers packing parcels in hampers or bags must fill in parcel-checking card, P.P. U., and enclose it in the receptacle with the parcels.

813. Hampers must always be handled with care, and when placed on coach, steamer, or train the lid must always be uppermost. To avoid accident, a line is to be run through the handle of a hamper when it is being lowered to the deck of a steamer. (See Rule 441.)

814. When parcels can without injury to their contents be enclosed in the ordinary letter-bags the use of hampers may be dispensed with.

815. If there be reason to believe that application is made for a parcel by a person who is neither the sender nor the addressee, nor duly authorized by either, it must be dealt with as an undelivered parcel and forwarded to the Dead Letter Office.

816. Parcels with perishable contents may be destroyed on the authority of the Chief Postmaster immediately they become offensive, but full particulars of the parcels should be furnished to the Inspector of Post-offices. The particulars of any parcel destroyed must also be entered in the Returned-parcel Record.

817. On the first of each month the Postmaster must make a careful examination of all parcels in his office and satisfy himself that everything is in proper order. He should also at frequent intervals personally supervise the parcel-work with the view of detecting or preventing irregularities.

DESPATCH OF FOREIGN PARCEL-MAILS.

818. The hour of closing parcel-mails for places outside the Dominion should be timely notified, and a paragraph inserted in the mail-notices giving the latest time for receipt of parcels. The post-office at the port from which the steamer takes her final departure will be the despatching office. Parcels from other places must reach the despatching office at least four hours before the closing of the ordinary mail.

819. When a parcel is presented for despatch to any place outside the Dominion the sender must be furnished with the Customs declaration, form C. & F. P.P. 1, and requested to write in full the information required by it. The declaration must then be date-stamped and securely gummed to the parcel.

820. The sender of a parcel to any place beyond New Zealand, except the United States of America, can be furnished with a certificate of posting on payment of a fee of 3d. The fee is to be affixed in stamps to the butt of the certificate of posting, and the stamps cancelled with an impression of the office date-stamp. Such certificate may include as many parcels as the sender chooses to enter on a list to be furnished in duplicate by him with the parcels. One copy of the list, with the fee attached, is to be retained by the post-office and gummed into the book of certificates, and the other copy is to be signed, date-stamped, and returned