2108
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 60

563. The officer who takes a receipt for and delivers a registered article must initial the receipt in the space provided. Postmasters will be held responsible for seeing that this duty is performed properly and regularly.

564. Registered articles for private-bag holders must be enclosed, with receipts attached, in the first bag despatched, and advised on private-bag letter-bill, Mail 11. The despatching officer must bracket the entries in the space provided for the addresses of registered letters and insured or ordinary parcels, and show in figures opposite the bracket the total number of such articles forwarded. The deposit of such articles in the bag must, in all cases, be witnessed by a second officer, and the fact attested by the signatures of the despatching and witnessing officers being written against the entry in the Registered-letter Book.

565. (a.) When the sender of a registered article has prepaid the special charge for an acknowledgment of delivery, a card, P.O. 1, must be prepared at the office of origin, and is to be securely attached to the registered article. The fee of 2½d. should be affixed in stamps to the letter, apart from the other stamps. At the side of or immediately below the stamps must be written in specially prominent letters “A.R.,” or the words “Acknowledgment of delivery.” A Government Department should be charged the usual fee of 2½d. for information supplied in connection with acknowledgment of delivery of a registered article. When an advice of delivery for an article addressed to a place beyond the Dominion is applied for subsequent to the posting of the registered article the 2½d. fee is to be enclosed in an envelope and submitted with the A.R. card to the Secretary (Postal Division), through the Chief Postmaster of the district. Particulars of despatch from New Zealand are to be furnished.

(b.) The payment of the acknowledgment-of-delivery fee is to be acknowledged by writing across the usual receipt furnished to the sender the words “Acknowledgment paid.” Care should be taken to note the name and address of the sender, to facilitate the delivery of the acknowledgment on its return. The designation of the office of posting and the serial number given on the registration label must be entered at the head of the form of acknowledgment after the words “of a registered article.”

566. On receipt of registered articles they should be carefully examined, to see whether any of them bear the inscription “Acknowledgment of delivery,” “Avis de reception,” or the impression of a stamp “A.R.” If no A.R. card be received with a letter bearing such inscription or impression, an acknowledgment of delivery must be made out on card P.O. 1. The addressee’s signature must be obtained on the A.R. form on delivery of an A.R. article; but, if the addressee’s signature cannot be obtained, the signature of an agent authorized in writing may be taken on the understanding that the sender of the article may require the addressee’s personal signature to be appended later. The words “Authorized agent” must be inserted below the agent’s signature.

567. When entering in the green-receipt book registered articles which are accompanied by an A.R. form, the letters “A.R.” must be written or stamped prominently on the receipt, and also on the carbon copy. The officer returning the A.R. card to the sender will initial the letters “A.R.” on the receipt as an indication that the acknowledgment form has been so disposed of; and the officer finally placing the completed green receipt in the book will be held responsible for seeing that the entry “A.R.” thereon has been initialled as directed herein.