Aug. 8.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 2035

recommendation. Letters for places beyond New Zealand bearing previously used stamps should be detained and sent with a report to the Secretary. Any letter posted bearing a postage-stamp which is believed to be forged is to be sent, with any report the Postmaster may have to make, to the Chief Postmaster, who, after making any further necessary inquiry, will send the papers to the Secretary, with his remarks. The postmarking of previously used or otherwise unrecognized stamps is strictly forbidden, even in cases in which such stamps are in addition to the proper unused stamps.

227. No surcharge is to be collected on a letter bearing a previously used or otherwise defective stamp until the Secretary's decision in the case has been given.

OFFICIAL STAMPS.

228. Postage-stamps to be used by Government Departments for prepaying official correspondence, including telegrams and toll communications, bear the overprint "Official" and are distributed, under existing Stamp Office regulations, to Chief Postmasters, who in turn will supply them on receipt of a voucher signed by the permanent head or local head of the Department requiring the stamps. Stamps so supplied by the Post and Telegraph Department will be paid for at Wellington by the Departments concerned. The stamps are of the following denominations: ½d., 1d., 1½d., 2d., 3d., 6d., 8d., 1s., 2s., 5s. Booklets containing 120 one-penny stamps are also sold, price 10s. 1d. each.

229. Official postage-stamps for the prepayment of official correspondence, including inland telegrams, but not cable messages, are also supplied to the commanders of His Majesty's ships visiting New Zealand waters.

230. (a.) Each member of the House of Representatives and of the Legislative Council is supplied with a book containing respectively warrants for £2 each printed on blue paper, and for £1 each printed on buff paper. Upon presentation of a warrant on the first day of the month indicated thereon, or at any subsequent date, a Postmaster in charge of a money-order office is authorized to supply official stamps to the value prescribed. The warrant must be signed by the member, and the letters "M.L.C." or "M.P." added to his signature. Credit for the voucher is to be claimed as a "Miscellaneous Payment for Legislative Department."

(b.) The official stamps may be used for one or other of the following purposes: (1) Payment of postage; (2) payment for inland telegrams; (3) payment for cable messages; (4) payment for toll communications; (5) payment of the subscription due for a telephone connection in the name of the member.

231. The aggregate value of official postage-stamps supplied to any one official or Department upon requisition must not be less than 5s. This amount may be confined to any one denomination or divided among the several denominations. In the latter case the minimum number of stamps of the respective values of ½d., 1d., 1½d., and 2d. is fixed at twelve, and of 3d., 6d., and 8d. at six.

232. (a.) Upon issuing official stamps a certified voucher on form Acct. 137 must be obtained, the receipt signed by the Postmaster, and the voucher treated as a "miscellaneous payment" on behalf of the Department to which the officer receiving the stamps is attached. The value of stamps supplied to commanders of visiting warships is claimed from the Department of Internal Affairs.

(b.) Requisitions made by police constables in their official capacity as sub-enumerators of agricultural and pastoral statistics for official stamps on behalf of the Government Statistician's Depart-