to which R.T.P.O. vans run an examination should be made of the late-fee boxes on railway guards’ vans attached to mail-trains. This is necessary in order to prevent delay to correspondence that may have been posted in such boxes owing to the posting-apertures having been left open.

(b.) Whenever it is noticed that a railway-train posting-box that will not be cleared on its then present journey is open to public posting, the fact is to be at once reported to the Railway Traffic Manager for the district, with the request that the box be closed, care being taken at the same time by this Department’s officer to see that nothing is left in the box before it is closed.

412. (a.) The hour of arrival of a mail should be recorded in a Book U. 17, or checked by the standard list, and, in order to ascertain that none are missing, the bags, hampers, &c., should be checked off from the waybill one by one. Every officer responsible for checking mails must record on his tally-sheet the name of the messenger or messengers deputed to call over mails from any particular train or steamer. The messenger or messengers must also be in a position to make an affidavit, if necessary, that all seals and mail-receptacles examined by them were intact.

(b.) The officer who opens a mail must satisfy himself, before cutting the string, that the bag is tied securely, that the seal is perfect and is that of the office from which the mail was despatched, and that the bag is in good order. Immediately the bag is emptied of its contents it is to be turned inside out, with the object of recovering any articles secreted in the bag. Any officer found guilty of neglecting this important duty will be seriously dealt with.

(c.) The receiving officer must first obtain the letter-bill, and then carefully check the receipt of any registered or remittance letters or “express” articles that may be entered thereon, placing his initials against the entry. He must also satisfy himself that the registered letters entered on the letter-bill are received, and in all other respects properly dealt with, except when sealed registered-letter packets or bags are received, in which case he will hand them intact to the registered-letter clerk. He must place loose registered letters in the proper channel for disposal, taking care to obtain the receipt of the officer to whom he hands them. Any irregularity must be duly noted and reported. The contents of the bag must not be disturbed until the registered-letter bag or packet is found, or the loose registered letters have been compared with the entries on the bill. Any failure to trace the registered articles and check them with the entries on the letter-bill will be very seriously noticed.

(d.) After the registered letters have been checked, the correctness of the entries on the letter-bill must be verified by an examination of the letters. If they cannot be made to agree, they must be checked by another officer. As soon as the receiving officer has satisfied himself as to the correctness of the entries, he must sign the letter-bill. Every letter-bill should be stamped at the same time as the letters which arrive with it, so as to bear the same index letter.

(e.) If a mail arrives without a letter-bill, or with one wrongly headed, its contents are to be checked by a second officer, a substitute bill made out, and the error reported.

(f.) If any article is found loose in a mail, or any packet found without an address, a report of the circumstance must be made at once.

(g.) Every missent article must be date-stamped on the address side with the stamp of the office to which it has been missent, preceded by the words “Missent to,” and a report made on the proper form. The article must then be forwarded to its proper destination by the first opportunity. In reporting the missending of correspondence Postmasters should invariably give the index letter, number, or time of the date-stamp of the despatching office.