Postal, Telegraphic and Telephone Regulations (Amendment) (Provisional) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1904. No. 58.

Commonwealth of Australia.

Postmaster-General’s Department,

14th September, 1904.

PROVISIONAL REGULATIONS UNDER THE POST AND TELEGRAPH ACT, 1901.

HIS Excellency the Governor-General, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by the Post and Telegraph Act, 1901, has been pleased to make the following provisional regulations:—

Preliminary.

1. In these Regulations references to Regulations hereby amended, or having other provisions substituted therefor, shall be construed as references to the Regulations of the 5th June, 1902, made under the Post and Telegraph Act, 1901.

2. These Regulations shall take effect forthwith.

 

Within the Commonwealth and to British New Guinea, New Zealand, and Fiji.

Printed Papers.

Regulation I relating to printed papers shall be read as if the words “including perforated paper rolls of music for use in playing musical instruments” were inserted therein after the word “music.”

General Postal Regulations.

Holiday Arrangements.

Omit from the second line in the first column of Regulation 3—Holiday Arrangements—the words “Dead Letter Office.’’

Payment of Postage by the Receiver.

The following Regulation shall be inserted under this head, after Regulation 2, under the head, “Prepayment of Postage.”

The postage on the following postal articles may be paid by the receiver instead of being prepaid by the sender:—

(a) Books concerning the new volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica, addressed “The Times (London) Australian Office, P.O., Box 1612, Sydney, N.S.W.,” if posted within the Commonwealth enclosed in covers having that address printed on the outside thereof.

(b) Books concerning the new volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica, addressed “The Times (London) Australian Office, P.O., Box 53, Perth, Western Australia,” if posted within the Commonwealth, enclosed in covers having that address printed on the outside thereof.

 

(c) Worked examination papers sent by Supervisors at country centres of examination in New South Wales to the office of the Public Service Board of that State, if enclosed in covers addressed “The Public Service Board, Sydney,” and having thereon the words “State Public Service Examination Papers only.”

Miscellaneous.

The following regulation shall be inserted after Regulation 9:—

9A Postal articles in transit, when lying at a Post Office awaiting despatch, may be delivered at that office to the persons to whom they are addressed, upon personal or written application, if the delivering officer is satisfied as to the identity of the applicant.

Telegraphic Regulations.—Telegrams within the Commonwealth.

Miscellaneous.

The following Regulation shall be substituted for Regulation No. 1 under this head:—

1. Telegrams tendered for transmission must be written in a legible manner, in plain language, and when practicable on the proper form, and the address must contain all information necessary to avoid delay and insure delivery. The signature of the sender need not be transmitted, or a telegram may have an abbreviated signature known to the receiver, but the correct signature of the sender must appear on the back of each telegram as a guarantee of its authenticity, and as subscribing to the conditions under which it is transmitted. In the text of telegrams amounts or numbers must be written in words only; provided that ordinary telegrams on His Majesty’s service, sent by officers in and belonging to His Majesty’s Navy, may be written in figures only; and where necessary figures may be used in the text of telegrams relating to Money Order and Government Savings Bank business, and of press telegrams. The use of figures in the addresses of telegrams is also permitted. The sign “&” must always be transmitted’ as “and.”

Counting and Charging.

The following Regulation shall be substituted for Regulation No. 1 under this head:—

1. Ordinary rates shall be charged for telegrams in any one of the following languages, viz., English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Latin.* Every telegram consisting of words in any admitted language other than English having no connective meaning, and any word in Webster’s English Dictionary containing more than fifteen letters, shall be treated as code, and all such words shall be counted as two words. Provided that the extra charge for code words shall not in any case exceed 50 per cent., in addition to the ordinary rate which would be payable on account of the said telegram. Isolated letters, or groups of letters, having no connective meaning, shall be counted as one word for each letter. Combinations of two or more words shall be counted as separate words,

*Japanese language may be used if written with English characters and guaranteed to be without secret meanings.

 

with the exception of those words which the usage of the language allows to be written together or coupled with hyphens, and which are so written by the sender of the telegram. Names of persons, places, &c., shall be counted on the same principle. Figures where allowed, shall be counted at the rate of five figures to a word.

The following Regulation shall be added to the Regulations under this head:—

(4) The name of the office or offices of destination, or the names of the respective States of “New South Wales,” “South Australia,” and “Western Australia,” shall each be counted’ as one word in the address of a telegram, but each word forming the name of the office of origin or destination or the name of a State shall be counted as one word when appearing in the text of or after the signature to a telegram.

Press Telegrams.

The following sub-section shall be substituted for sub-section (b) of Regulation 2 under this head:—

(b) The telegram must contain only intelligence which is intended for immediate publication in a newspaper, or for immediate exhibition in the news room of the newspaper or recognised news agency to which it is addressed.

The following Regulation shall be inserted after Regulation 5:—

5a Messages containing only the actual results of any Commonwealth or State Parliamentary election may, on the polling day of the election, be sent by telegraph by any person as press telegrams, provided that—

(a) The message contains no comments, and

(b) No newspaper is published in the town or place to which the telegram is addressed, and

(c) the charges are prepaid.

The following Regulation shall be inserted after Regulation 6 :—

7. The use of figures may be permitted in the text of press telegrams where necessary, e.g., in share quotations, &c.

When figures are so used they shall be counted at the rate of five figures to a word.

 

TELEPHONE REGULATIONS.

The following Regulation shall be inserted after Regulation 15, viz.:—

15a. When the extension of an existing telephone line does increase the total radial mileage of such line beyond that for which rent is being paid at the time, the cost of making such extension shall be borne by the Postmaster-General, but the subscriber shall pay the prescribed annual rental for the mileage of the line as extended, and also for such extra instruments (if any) as may be required on the extension.

 

By Authority: Robt. S. Brain, Government Printer, Melbourne.