2082
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
No. 60

(6.) To see that an accurate return is kept of all correspondence delivered by postmen during each of the weekly periods when the usual counting of delivered correspondence takes place.

(7.) To examine from time to time letters awaiting delivery at hotels, &c.

(8.) To make application daily at the delivery counter for any unpaid or registered correspondence for private boxes which has been in hand for twenty-four hours, and to arrange for delivery of such correspondence.

(b.) A Supervisor of Postmen supersedes a Postmen’s Sorter in the performance of these duties.

438. (a.) Letters, &c., for counter delivery, after being date-stamped, are to be carefully sorted into the proper pigeon-holes, which should be examined daily to see that they do not contain any articles for delivery by postman, or such as should have been redirected. Redirection-cards should be compared daily with the letters in hand, and registered cards with registered letters in the locker.

(b.) At permanent offices at which separate pigeon-holes are used for newspapers and packets, a card (Mail 3) is, as required, to be filled in and placed with the letters awaiting delivery, as a reminder that newspapers and packets are also awaiting delivery.

(c.) Letters for Maoris and Asiatics are to be sorted alphabetically into the ordinary correspondence for delivery, and are to be delivered only on the personal application of addressees known to Postmasters, on the identification of applicants by trustworthy persons known to Postmasters, or on the production of properly written orders.

439. Persons applying for correspondence are required to state from what place it is expected, and to give such other particulars as will establish their identity. When inquiry is made by a married woman for a money-order telegram the inquirer is to be asked, in the event of a money-order being in hand for a married woman of the same surname but with initials different from those given by the applicant, whether the initials quoted by her are her own, and, if not, what her own initials are. In the case of ordinary correspondence a married woman should always be asked for both her own and her husband’s initials.

440. When an English mail arrives at a chief office on a day prior to a departmental holiday too late to enable a delivery of correspondence to be made before the ordinary time of closing, a special counter delivery is to be made for an hour, provided it can be completed by 10 p.m. If possible, the delivery is to be made from 7 to 8 p.m. This special delivery is to include postmen’s correspondence.

441. (a.) All letters must be delivered as addressed, except in the case of addressees who have changed their residences.

(b.) Letters awaiting despatch to another office and letters addressed for delivery through private bags may, if practicable, be intercepted upon a request being made to that effect by the addressee, who must be satisfactorily identified.

442. The address of a letter, once it is posted, must not be altered at the request of the sender or of any one else. Immediately on being posted a letter ceases to belong to the sender. Any officer found disregarding this instruction, no matter under what pressure or solicitation, will be very severely dealt with. The addressee alone has a right to letters, &c., or the right to say how they shall be disposed of, and all his orders for delivery otherwise than to himself must be in writing. (See Rule 473 (a).)