Aug. 8.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1989

proposed office. This form should be sent to the Secretary with a full report. An application for a telephone-office is to be referred by the District Telegraph Engineer to the Chief Telegraph Engineer, covered by form Engr. 27. Any estimate of cost of a proposed office is tentative, and applicants should be cautioned against acting on it as final. The report should be accompanied by a plan of the locality showing the position of the proposed office in relation to the nearest established office. In recommending the opening of a post or telephone office the officer recommending should name the county in which the proposed office is situated, and, in the case of a proposed post-office, the circulating office. In the case of a 5 lb. parcel-post office, the names of the nearest 11 lb. and 28 lb. offices are to be shown; and in the case of an 11 lb. office, the name of the nearest 28 lb. office is to be shown. If the office is a 28 lb. one the fact is to be stated.

(b.) The place-name is to be adopted for a new office, provided it is suitable. A new office may not bear a name the same as or closely resembling either phonetically or in spelling the name of an existing office. A telephone-office opened at a place at which there is a post-office, or a post-office opened at a place at which there is a telephone-office, whether or not in separate charge, is to bear the name of the existing office.

(c.) When an office is proposed to be opened at a Native school or at a Native-schoolmaster’s residence under the control of the Education Department, or in charge of an officer or employee of any other Department, action to open the office must not be taken until the permission is obtained of the Department concerned. This permission will be asked for by the Secretary.

(d.) Every office should be in a central and convenient situation, should afford adequate accommodation to the public, and should be supplied with all requisite fittings. No office may be established at a publichouse without the sanction of the Licensing Committee (see section 168 of the Licensing Act, 1908), nor should an office continue to be maintained at a publichouse when other accommodation is available.

(e.) Every post-office must be furnished with a letter-box fixed within the building or room appropriated to the office, and having on the outside at least one horizontal aperture, which must be easy of access to the public at all hours. The chute from the aperture into the box must slope upwards about 2 in. The dimensions of the box should be not less than the following: Height, 30 in.; width, 12 in.; depth from front to back, 15 in. The posting-aperture should be 8 in. long and 2 in. wide, and at a height of 42 in. from the footpath or roadway. The box must be shut by a door forming the entire back or side, and must be kept locked, and the key kept in a safe place. No persons should have access to the box except those whose duty it is to clear it. An enamelled notice-plate, to be placed over the posting-aperture, will be supplied by the Department. Chief Postmasters should see that some protection is provided for the aperture of any posting-box known to have been entered by birds.

(f.) When authority to open a new post or telephone office has been obtained, the Chief Postmaster or the District Telegraph Engineer, as the case may be, is to forward to the Secretary a plan, in duplicate, of the position of the office. The plan is to be on the scale of one mile to an inch, and is to show clearly in which part of the lot (subdivision if any) or section the office is situated, the number of such lot or section, the block and survey district or parish, and the name of the road. If the office is at or near a school, this is to be stated.

16. An officer making inquiries in the district respecting a proposal to open an office or on any other matter in which mem-