MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

New Zealand Police Gazette, Volume LVI, Issue 30, 29 July 1931, Page 472

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

Memorandum.] Boiler and Machinery Certificates.—Collection of Fees, Circular 3/1926. The following memorandum, received from the Secretary, Marine Department, is published for general information and guidance. W. G. Wohlmann, Commissioner of Police. 27/7/31. (P. 31/811.)

[Copy.] (26/1/145.) Marine Department, Wellington, 15th June, 1931. Memorandum for The Commissioner of Police, Wellington. Machinery Inspection Pees. The procedure adopted by this Department with regard to the inspection of machinery is to issue a fee notice to the owner after the inspection takes place, calling upon him to pay the scale inspection fee and advising him that if payment is made within one month he is entitled to a certain stipulated reduction. If payment is delayed beyond the month the full statutory fee is payable. Machinery owners are given the option of paying the fees at the nearest postal money-order office or direct to Head Office, or to Public Account at the nearest branch of 'the Bank of New Zealand, in which case the bank receipt must be forwarded to this Department. Immediately the fees reach this office the certificates are despatched to the machinery owners. If payment is not received within reasonable time after the despatch of the first notice, a final notice is issued, and if this does not have the desired effect a request is issued to your local office to have the case investigated. In this connection it is as well for your officers to know that when a fee is paid at a postal money-order office a period of about three weeks elapses before it reaches this Department. This delay is due to the accounting methods of the Post and Telegraph Department, and, although every endeavour has been made to have the interval reduced, the Post and Telegraph Department is unable to assist us in that direction. The consequence is that your officers sometimes receive a request to investigate a case and find that the fee has been paid at the local post-office, perhaps a week or a fortnight previously.

The main object of police investigation so far as this De partment is concerned is to effect payment of the fee. In cases where calling upon the owner personally necessitates travelling some distance a telephone call or a note from a local constable will in most cases have the desired effect, but, if it does not, then an endeavour should be made to obtain evidence that the machinery is in use, as the working of machinery without being in possession of the current certificate renders the owner liable to a fine up to £IOO, and the Department does not hesitate to prosecute for this offence in recalcitrant cases. There are probably instances in which your officers are asked by the owner to take a fee in order to save him a trip into town, but there is no necessity to forward the money here by registered post. The amount may be paid into the local post-office and the receipt forwarded to the owner, or, alternatively, lodged to the credit of the Public Account at the nearest branch of the Bank of New Zealand and the departmental portion of the receipt forwarded to this office and the other portion to the owner. • In conclusion I may say that the collection of machinery inspection fees, particularly of the smaller amounts ranging from 2s. 6d. to £l, costs this Department a good deal of trouble, and your officers have always been of invaluable assistance in this connection. A word from a policeman is more effective than any written demand, no matter how strongly worded.

(Sgd.) G. Godfrey, Secretary