F.—3

5

Bedirected Telegrams. 22. Telegrams redirected to a corrected address are liable to an additional charge of 6d.»if delivery can be effected from the original receiving office, but if the corrected address requires T the message to be re-telegraphed from the receiving office a charge will be made equal to the original amount paid. Fee for Search. 23. On the application, within six months of the date of its presentation, of the sender or the addressee of any telegram, search will be made by the department for the copies'thereof in its possession. A fee of five shillings shall accompany each application for search, or for search with copies, so as to cover cost of the search and the copy or copies required. Any excess or insufficiency in this amount, determined by the length of time occupied in the search, will be adjusted before copies are handed to applicants. The rate of payment for search is two shillings and sixpence per hour or fraction thereof. For copies of inland, telegrams a charge of sixpence each will be made, and for copies of cable telegrams fivepence for every hundred words or fraction thereof. No application is entertained unless at the request of the sender or of the person to whom any telegram is addressed. 24. In the case of allegation of error on the part of the department in the transmission of any telegram, no inquiry will be made unless the telegram was a repetition-paid telegram, or unless a fee equal to half the cost of the original message is paid. Accidents to Lines. 25. In the event of serious delays occurring through accident to the lines, which may prevent the transmission of a telegram within a reasonable time, or may destroy the value of any telegram, the acceptance of telegrams may be refused for the time being; and, in the case of a telegram already accepted, the sender may, on an application to the Officer in Charge of the station at which such telegram was presented and paid for, receive back the amount paid thereon," and the telegram will be cancelled. In the event of partial interruption of the lines by accident or stress of weather, the department may refuse to accept all telegrams except urgent telegrams. Monopoly of Line forbidden. 26. The transmission of telegrams presented in quantity, or of telegrams of great length, may be delayed when their transmission would give an undue monopoly of the line to the sender or addressee. Prohibitions. 27. Telegrams which are indecently or obscenely worded, or which appear to contain matter of a treasonable, seditious, libellous, or grossly offensive character, will not be transmitted. Urgent Telegrams. 28. Telegrams marked " Urgent" are received at any telegraph-office and transmitted in the order of their priority with other messages of the like code. Urgent telegrams take precedence of all ordinary messages. The fee for an urgent telegram is double of that for an ordinary telegram. Urgent telegrams lodged on Sunday are charged four rates. When the sender of an urgent telegram desires to pay for an urgent reply, the words " Urgent, reply paid urgent" must be inserted in the instructions. When the reply required is not to be urgent the instruction should be " Urgent, reply paid." Charges for Messages relating to Sickness or Death. 29. Telegraphic messages relating to sickness or death or other urgent matters may be accepted and transmitted from any to any telegraph-office at any time outside the ordinary hours of business on week-days or Sundays (provided the attention of the terminal office can be obtained), on payment of the following rates and fees :— For the first twelve words or less, including address and signature, Is., and 2d. for each additional word after twelve. Such telegrams must be inscribed with the words " Extra fee " in the instructions. For calling upon a postmaster or operator in charge to transmit a message after his ordinary hours of duty, and when the office is closed, 2s. 6d., to be paid even if the telegram fails to reach its destination, but in the latter case the tariff rates collected will be refunded. In addition to the foregoing charges a further fee of 2s. must be paid for delivery within a mile from the office. 30. Charges for ferries, tolls, or for any extra cost incurred for delivery beyond the ordinary limits must also be paid by the sender at 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. Weather Telegrams for Shipping. 31. Masters of vessels are permitted to forward messages at one uniform rate of sixpence for each message (including reply) to the Harbourmasters of the several ports seeking information as to the state of the weather, &c, at the port to which they are bound, or from any port which may lie in their route. These telegrams must be concise, and should be filled in in accordance with the directions to be seen at telegraph-offices. In no case will a larger number of words in the body of the telegram than twelve be allowed.