STATUTORY RULES.
1958. No. 13.
REGULATIONS UNDER THE POST AND TELEGRAPH ACT 1901-1950.*
I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Post and Telegraph Act 1901-1950.
Dated this eleventh day of March, 1958.
W. J. Slim
Governor-General.
By His Excellency’s Command,
Postmaster-General.
Amendments of the Telegraph Regulations.†
1. Regulation 57 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—
Re-direction and re-transmission of telegrams.
“57.—(1.) A telegram may be re-directed and re-transmitted from one telegraph office to another within Australia on the written request of the addressee or his representative or, in the absence of such a request, the telegram may be re-directed and re-transmitted when the Department has learnt that the addressee has moved to a new address that is known by the Department.
“(2.) A telegram for re-transmission shall bear the words ‘Re-transmitted from’ followed by the name of the telegraph office re-directing the telegram, and those words shall be counted and charged for.
“(3.) The charges for re-transmission shall be at the rates prescribed for telegrams from the telegraph office re-transmitting the telegram to the telegraph office to which the telegram is being re-transmitted.
“(4.) The charges prescribed for re-transmission shall be paid before the telegram is delivered.
“(5.) A person may request in writing that telegrams addressed to him be re-directed and forwarded by post to another address in Australia, and postage shall not be charged on those telegrams.
* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on 20th March, 1958.
† Statutory Rules 1927, No. 142, as amended by Statutory Rules 1928, Nos. 35, 88 and 97; 1929, Nos. 15 and 128; 1930, Nos. 1, 5, 42, 81, 114 and 129; 1931, Nos. 70, 132 and 136; 1933, Nos. 102 and 127; 1934, Nos. 24, 113 and 137; 1935, No. 77; 1938, No. 63; 1939, Nos. 14 and 84; 1940, Nos. 50, 87 and 102; 1942, No. 550; 1943, Nos. 215 and 242; 1944, No. 91; 1945, No. 10; 1946, No. 139; 1948, No. 23; 1949, Nos. 19 and 91; 1950, No. 91; 1951, Nos. 23, 73 and 90; 1952, Nos. 6, 35 and 78; 1954, No. 5; 1955, No. 58; 1956, No. 69; and 1957, No. 41.
5542/57.—Price 3d. 9/16.12.1957.
“(6.) A telegram which is intended for delivery from a telegraph office within the metropolitan area of a capital city or within the town area of a town and which is wrongly addressed to a telegraph office within that area shall be re-transmitted and delivered without additional charge.
“(7.) A charge shall not be made for the re-direction of a telegram from one address to another if transmission by telegraph is not involved.
“(8.) A telegraph office shall register, without charge, a written notice of removal and instructions with respect to the delivery of telegrams at hours when the addressee’s place of business is closed.
“(9.) The re-transmission by telegraph of an inland telegram to a place outside Australia shall be subject to the pre-payment of the telegraphic charges involved by the sender, the addressee or the representative of either of them.”.
Collect telegrams.
2. Regulation 60 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended—
(a) by omitting from sub-regulation (1.) the word “‘Collect’” and inserting in its stead the words “Subject to these Regulations, ‘collect’”; and
(b) by omitting from sub-regulation (2.) the word “When” and inserting in its stead the words “Subject to these Regulations, when”.
Press, broadcasting and television telegrams.
3. Regulation 63 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended—
(a) by omitting from sub-regulation (1.) the words “Post and Telegraph Rates Act 1902-1940” and inserting in their stead the words “Post and Telegraph Rates Act 1902-1956”; and
(b) by omitting sub-regulations (2.), (3.), (4.), (5.) and (6.) and inserting the following sub-regulations in their stead:—
“(2.) For the purposes of these Regulations and of Part III. of the Second Schedule to the Post and Telegraph Rates Act 1902-1956, broadcasting and television telegrams shall be telegrams which comply with the following provisions:—
(a) Subject to this sub-regulation, the text of the telegram shall consist only of political commercial or general information or news that is intended for immediate publication by transmission from a broadcasting or television station;
(b) the telegram shall be in plain language and in the English language, but may include any group of figures, or letters and figures, which are used with the meaning usually given to them in the English language;
(c) the telegram shall not contain—
(i) any advertisement;
(ii) an election address;
(iii) anything for the transmission of which by a broadcasting or television station payment or consideration is usually made or given; or
(iv) a letter to the manager of the broadcasting or television station; and
(d) the telegram may include instructions (such as ‘Part I.’, ‘To precede’, ‘To follow’, ‘Substitute for previous’, ‘Good night’ or ‘Finis’) that are necessary to facilitate the broadcasting or televising of the information or news contained in the telegram, but shall not include inquiries such as ‘Can you take 2,000 more’.
“(3.) Press, broadcasting or television telegrams which relate to—
(a) any Parliamentary, Executive or Departmental proceedings of the Commonwealth, including Parliamentary Papers and Bills of the Commonwealth;
(b) reports of proceedings of Royal Commissions appointed by the Governor-General; and
(c) summaries of any such proceedings, Papers, Bills or reports,
without notes, comments or any extraneous matter beyond what is necessary to afford a connected statement of the facts, are telegrams for the purposes of division (a) of Part II. of the Second Schedule to the Post and Telegraph Rates Act 1902-1956.
“(4.) Press, broadcasting and television telegrams shall be accepted for transmission subject to the following conditions:—
(a) The sender of the telegram shall be a correspondent of, and the telegram shall be addressed to—
(i) a newspaper registered under section 29 of the Act,
(ii) a news agency approved by the Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs, or
(iii) a national or commercial broadcasting or television station,
but the telegram shall not be addressed to the editor, manager, or any other person by name;
(b) between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., an ordinary telegram is entitled to be transmitted in precedence to a press, broadcasting or television telegram; and
(c) the telegram shall be lodged sufficiently early to permit the completion of its transmission before the time of closing of the telegraph office at which it is lodged and of the telegraph office to which it is addressed and, for the purpose of this paragraph, one minute shall be deemed to be the time of transmission for each twenty words where the transmission is direct, and two minutes for each twenty words where it is necessary for the telegram to be repeated through an intermediate telegraph office.
“(5.) Where a telegram is presented for transmission at the rates prescribed for press, broadcasting and television telegrams, and there is doubt whether the telegram is entitled to transmission at those rates, the telegram may be accepted for transmission at those rates if the sender undertakes in writing to pay for the telegram at the rates prescribed for ordinary telegrams if subsequently required to do so.
“(6.) Regulation 60 of these Regulations does not apply so as to require the sender of a ‘collect’ press, broadcasting or television telegram to sign an undertaking or lodge a deposit as required by that regulation, but if the addressee fails to pay the charges for a ‘collect’ press, broadcasting or television telegram, the sender shall pay the amount due, together with the cost of the telegraphic advice of nonpayment by the addressee.”.
Commonwealth Electoral and Referendum telegrams.
4. Regulation 64 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended by omitting the words “Post and Telegraph Rates Act 1902-1951” and inserting in their stead the words “Post and Telegraph Rates Act 1902-1956”.
A. J. Arthur, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.