Dec. 4.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 3659

For every mile over 500 miles 2½d. per mile first class, 1½d. per mile second class.

Minimum charge, 6s. first class, 4s. 2d. second class.

Tickets at the holiday excursion rates will only be issued at the option of the Railway Department.

The journey must be commenced on the first day for which ticket is available, and completed on or before the date on which the ticket expires, and may be broken at any station where the train is timed to stop after travelling 50 miles from the original starting-station, provided the specified time for which the tickets are available is not exceeded.

Holiday excursion tickets may be issued to bona fide jockeys and bona fide trainers travelling in charge of racehorses en route to race meetings, and to bona fide exhibitors or bona fide attendants in charge of exhibits en route to shows, one week earlier than the dates upon which such tickets are advertised as issuable to the general public to such race meeting or show. The Department reserves to itself the right to decline any application for this concession.

School-parties, Factories, and Friendly Societies.

34. Excursion tickets available for day of issue only will be issued to school-parties, factories, friendly societies, and registered trade-unions, numbering not less than twenty persons, travelling together for recreation, and not for business purposes.

Stop-over excursion tickets (available for return for one week from date of issue) will be issued to school pleasure parties and school athletic teams, numbering not less than twenty persons in all, bona fide scholars and teachers, travelling together.

The fares charged will be as follows :—

SECOND CLASS.

FIRST CLASS, double the above rates in each case.

Tickets at above rates will be issued only at the option of the Department. They will not be issued on public holidays.

The Department does not undertake to carry parties at the above rates by mail and express trains.

Where special trains are provided a guarantee equal to 100 second-class adult ordinary return fares may be required; minimum charge, £10. (See Regulations Nos. 46 and 47.)

The number of adult passengers, exclusive of teachers and senior scholars, carried at these fares by any school-excursion train must not exceed the number of children under fifteen years of age who are carried by the same train.

School-excursion trains will be run conditionally on the Committee arranging the excursion undertaking to place at least two adults, either teachers or other persons, in charge of each carriage to maintain order and prevent children from riding on the carriage-platforms.

The Committee must undertake the sale of all tickets and all responsibility for the value of same. They must restrict the sale of adult tickets within the limits specified, and give a written undertaking to conform to these regulations, and to pay to the Railway Department the difference in value between the school-excursion and ordinary return fares for all adults in excess of the limits specified in clause 8 to whom school-excursion tickets are issued.

Unsold tickets must be returned to the Railway Department before the excursion train starts on its outward journey, or at destination station before the commencement of the homeward journey, otherwise the Committee will be debited with the full value thereof, and no rebate will be made on account of tickets afterwards tendered as unsold.