SEPT 13.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 2405

If officers are required to remain in attendance pending the receipt of a reply, the person at whose request the office was reopened must pay for the whole time of such attendance as overtime at the rate fixed by the Department’s regulations.

Charges for ferries, tolls, or for any extra cost incurred in delivery must also be paid by the sender at the time of presenting the telegram. The sender shall also be liable for short charges should it be subsequently found that the amount collected for carriage was insufficient.

Rules for Counting.

Telegrams shall be charged for according to tariff rates as shown in these regulations. All that the sender wishes to transmit to his correspondent shall be charged for except service instructions, such as the following, viz.: “Urgent,” “Reply paid,” “Collect,” “Repetition paid,” “Carriage paid,” &c. When the sender desires to insert special instructions for the information of the addressee, such as “Private,” “Confidential,” “To be opened at once,” or the like, they must be written before the address; but special instructions referring to the delivery of a telegram, such as “Post,” “Per Te Anau,” “By first steamer,” must be written so as to immediately precede the name of the office of destination. If it is desired that delivery be effected at a certain hour the instruction “Deliver at (time)” should be inserted before the address. The special instructions, no matter where appearing, must be paid for as part of the message. The words should also be written in the space provided for instructions. Special instructions written by the sender will appear on the envelope enclosing the telegram.

Telegrams may be written in plain or secret language, or partly in plain and partly in secret language.

(i.) Plain language shall be that which offers intelligible sense in one or more of the following authorized languages, viz.: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese (provided it is expressed in English characters), Latin, Maori, Portuguese, Spanish. Except as provided hereafter in these regulations plain language words exceeding fifteen letters shall be counted at the rate of fifteen letters for each word, plus one word for any excess. Plain language may not consist of illegitimate combinations, or words or abbreviations contrary to the usage of such language, Webster’s Dictionary being taken as the standard for the English language.

(ii.) Secret language may be expressed in either code or cipher.

(iii.) Code language shall be that which is composed of words not forming intelligible phrases, but capable of pronunciation in any of the authorized languages enumerated in this regulation. For the purposes of counting, words in code language exceeding ten letters shall be regarded as cipher. Combinations not fulfilling these conditions shall be charged for as cipher.

(iv.) Cipher language shall be that which is formed (a) of Arabic figures having a secret meaning, (b) of letters or groups of letters having a secret meaning, (c) of words, names, expressions, or combinations of letters not fulfilling the conditions of plain language or of code language. Words expressed in cipher language shall be counted at the rate of five characters to a word, plus one word for any excess, up to five characters.

Words in plain language inserted in the text of a mixed telegram—i.e., composed of words in plain language and of words in code language—shall be counted each at the rate of one word for each indivisible series of ten characters which they contain. If the telegram contains, in addition, passages in cipher language, the passages in cipher shall be counted according to the provisions of the previous regulation herein, paragraph (iv). If the text of a telegram is composed of passages in plain language and of passages in cipher language, the passages in plain language shall be counted according to the provisions of the previous regulation herein, paragraph (i), and the passages in cipher language according to the provisions of the previous regulation herein, paragraph (iv); while if the text is composed of code words and cipher only the code words shall be counted as provided for in paragraph (iii), and the cipher as provided for in paragraph (iv) of the previous regulation herein.

Words registered with the Department as telegraphic code addresses shall be counted as plain language words in the address, text, or signature of any telegram. However, when such a word appears in the text or signature it shall be so counted only when it refers to the registered address.

Combinations of two or more words shall be charged for as separate words, but compound words appearing in Webster’s Dictionary, joined by a hyphen or separated by an apostrophe, and so written by the sender, shall be counted and charged for as single words. The cardinal and ordinal numbers up to and including ninety-nine and ninety-ninth, respectively, and the words “onepenny,” “twopence,” “twopenny,” &c., up to and including “eighteenpence,” and “eighteenpenny” shall be counted and treated as one word each when so written. Fractional numbers expressed in words, such as “seveneighths,” “onesixteenth,” &c., shall be counted as double words, except in cases where the expression appears as one word in Webster’s Dictionary.

The name of any post-office, public telegraph-office, or railway telegraph-office in New Zealand will pass as a single word in either the address or text of any inland message, but names consisting of two or more separate words shall be counted as one word only when the reference is to the place at which the post or telegraph office of that name is situated.

Each separate letter or figure shall be charged for as one word; groups of five figures or a fractional part of five figures shall be counted as one word; groups exceeding five figures shall be counted at the rate of five figures to the word, and any fractional portion remaining shall be counted as one word. The same rule applies to groups of letters. Where a fraction is inserted in a group of figures, such fraction shall be regarded as terminating the word—as, 31½8¼9, three words. In groups of mixed letters and figures each letter or figure or each collection of letters or figures up to five characters shall be counted as a single word.

Delivery of Telegrams.

Except as notified elsewhere in the Post and Telegraph Guide and in the list of offices in this regulation hereunder, all telegrams shall be delivered free of charge within a distance of one mile by the nearest practicable road from the office to which they may be transmitted by telegraph.

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