Aug. 8.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 2153

account of cheques which they have reasonable ground for believing
to be good. Cheques and bills on countries beyond New Zealand
may not be accepted as savings-bank deposits, or for any other pur-
pose, without special instructions from the Controller of Accounts.
A Postmaster will be held personally liable for the amount of any
cheques accepted by him in contravention of this rule.

All cheques accepted from the public should be examined to
see that the duty of 2d. is impressed or is affixed in postage-stamps.
A postage-stamp on a cheque must be cancelled by the person who
draws the cheque writing across the stamp his name or initials and
the date.

782. Officers are strictly forbidden to cash cheques for any
officer of the Public Trust Office, and must not allow the Post Office
to be made a medium for negotiating private cheques. Govern-
ment cheques may be accepted if the Postmaster is personally satis-
fied that they are in order in every respect, and that they are pre-
sented by the persons entitled to receive the amount for which they
are drawn; but the acceptance of cheques on Post Office business
is not officially recognized, and officers must understand that they
accept them on their own responsibility. Officers must not include
cheques received from the public as part of their official funds. All
receipts for payments made by cheque must be so marked.

783. At isolated places at which there is no bank agency an
arrangement may be made whereby cheques aggregating a fixed
amount, drawn by well-known firms and persons of repute, may be
cashed by Postmasters, provided the bank on which such cheques
are drawn guarantees to honour them to an amount to be deter-
mined between the drawer, the bank, and the Post Office. No
arrangement of this nature may, however, be made without the
express authority of the Secretary.

784. Postmasters in charge of offices at which there is not an
agency of the Bank of New Zealand must not collect exchange on
a cheque tendered in payment of an amount due to the State
Advances Office. It should be sent in to the chief office as a
remittance. The Chief Postmaster will negotiate the cheque either
at his own office or at the office on which the cheque is drawn, or,
if it is not drawn on any office in his district, through the Chief Post-
master of the district in which is situated the bank on which the
cheque is drawn.

785. Officers must see that exchange at the current rates is
collected on all cheques excepting those mentioned in Rule 784.
The Bank of New Zealand charges all Government Departments,
including the Post and Telegraph, exchange at the rate of ⅓ per
cent., with a minimum of 6d. on each cheque, on cheques drawn by
private parties upon another town in the Dominion, whether that
town be within or without the provincial district in which the cheques
are presented.

786. An order drawn on a private firm accepted in the ordi-
nary course of business at a money-order office must have added
any exchange due and must be lodged in the usual manner to
the credit of the receiving Postmaster’s Official Deposit Account.
If the receiving Postmaster has no Official Deposit Account he will
claim credit for the order as a “remittance to Chief Office.” In
such a case the order must be lodged to the credit of the Chief
Postmaster’s Deposit Account.

RESERVE BALANCES.

787. (a.) The amount of reserve balances other than cash autho-
rized for accounting offices is based upon the total sales for a period
of two months. All applications for a reserve balance or for an
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