Directory_and_Chronicle_1904 — Page 494

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

381

38.-A bundle of newspapers may be prepaid at so much each (and each one must count, however small), or the whole may be paid at book rate.

39.-Two newspapers must not be folded together as one, nor must anything whaterer be inserted except bond fide supplements of the same paper and same date. Printed matter may, however, be enclosed if the whole be paid at book rate.

40.-A newspaper or a packet of newspapers posted insufficiently paid will on delivery be charged with double the deficiency. Unpaid newspapers cannot be forwarded.

41. A newspaper is a printed paper containing news.

42.-Every newspaper should be so folded and covered (if posted in a cover) as to permit the title to be readily inspected, and must be open at both ends.

43.-No newspaper and no cover of a newspaper may bear anything (not being part of the newspaper) except the names and addresses of the sender and the addressee, a request for return in case of non-delivery or the title of the newspaper. If it contains any written communication whatever it will be charged as a letter.

44.—A packet of newspapers must not weigh above 5 lbs. or exceed 2 feet in length by 1 foot in width or depth.

BOOK PACKETS.

45. The prepaid rate of postage on a book packet is 2 cents for each 2 ounces. 46.-The term "book packet" includes almost all kinds of printed or written matter not of the nature of an actual or personal correspondence, with whatever is necessary for its illustration or safe transmission, as maps, rollers, binding, &c., but a book must contain no communication whatever of the nature of a letter. Stamps of any kind, whether obliterated or not, or any papers representing monetary value, such as coupons, drafts, lottery tickets, &c., must be sent at letter rates.

47.—A book may contain an inscription presenting it, notes or marks referring to the text, or such writing as With the author's compliments, &c. Compliments not exceeding five words may be written on visiting cards. In travellers' announcements the place of the intended visit, as well as the date and the traveller's name, may be indicated in writing, Christmas and New Year's cards may bear a written dedication. Titles of books may be written in forms of subscription to libraries, as well as in orders to booksellers; and on newspaper cuttings the addition in manuscript or by a mechanical process, of the title, date, number and address of the publication from which the article is extracted, is permitted.

48.-Mechanical reproductions (not less than twenty) of a manuscript or type- written original may pass as printed papers if handed in at the Post Office window.

49.--Albums containing photographs may pass as printed papers.

50.-The packet must be open at the ends and the contents visible, or easily to be rendered visible. Packets which are sealed or forwarded in closed covers with the corners cut off or with notched ends will be taxed and sent forward as ordinary correspondence. Packets may be tied with string to protect the contents, but in such a way that the string can be casily untied.

51.-The weight of a book packet is limited as follows:-

I

To other offices, 4 lbs.

To British offices, 5 lbs. 52.-Book Packets for non-British offices must not exceed 18 inches measurement in any one direction, but such objects as maps, pictures, plans, photographis, &c., if made up into rolls of no great thickness and not exceeding 31 inches in length, may be so forwarded to any country.

COMMERCIAL Papers.

53.-The distinction between Books and Commercial Papers (papiers d'affaires) is, that whilst Book Packets are to consist of printed matter, Commercial Papers are wholly or partly written by hand. They must not be of the nature of an actual or personal correspondence.

54.-Commercial Papers are such papers as the following:-Printers' copy; authors' manuscript; press copies of any documents not letters; law papers; deeds; bills of lading ; invoices; insurance papers; copied music, &c. The rate is the same as for books, but no packet of commercial papers, whatever its weight, is charged less than 10 cents. Stamps of any kind, whether obliterated or not, or any papers representing monetary value, such as coupons, drafts, lottery tickets, &c., must be sent at letter rates.

55.-Any one Commercial Paper in a Book Packet exposes the whole packet to the above rule as to minimum charge; with this exception all kinds of printed matter and patterns may be enclosed in one packet and forwarded at book

rates.