STATUTORY RULES 1951, No. 90.(i)

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Commencement.

1. These Regulations shall come into operation on the first day of September, 1951.

2. Regulations 3 and 4, the heading to Part II. and regulation 5 of the Telegraph Regulations are repealed and the following regulations and heading inserted in their stead:—

Definitions.

“3. In these Regulations, unless the contrary intention appears—

‘Australia’ includes the Territories of the Commonwealth;

‘Commonwealth telegram’ or ‘telegram’ means a telegram other than an International telegram;

‘counter officer’ means a person whose duty it is to accept telegrams from senders at a telegraph office for transmission;

‘International telegram’ means a telegram transmitted to or received from a place outside Australia;

‘paid service advice’ means a telegraph message, sent at the request of the sender or addressee, or a representative of the sender or addressee, in respect of which the prescribed charge has been paid and which—

(a) is exchanged between officers of the Department who are authorized to send or receive paid service advices; and

(b) contains instructions or information relating to a telegram which has previously been transmitted;

(i) Made under the Post and Telegraph Act 1901-1950 on 31st August, 1951; notified in Gazette on 31st August, 1951.

‘plain language’ means language which has a connected meaning in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin or Japanese, each word and each expression having its usual meaning in the language to which it belongs, and includes—

(a) registered addresses;

(b) numbers written in letters or figures, where the numbers have no secret meaning;

(c) commercial marks, trade marks, designations of goods, arbitrary technical terms used to denote machines or parts of machines, reference numbers or indications and other expressions of the same kind consisting of letters or figures, or a mixture of letters and figures, where the marks, designations, technical terms, reference numbers or indications and expressions appear in a catalogue available to the public or in a price list, invoice, bill of lading or similar document;

(d) exchange or market quotations;

(e) groups representing meteorological observations or forecasts; and

(f) combinations of letters forming abbreviations such as FOB, CIFE, OK, AM, PM, AIF, RAAF, HMAS, HMS, TAA, ANA, AMP, YWCA, RPM, ALP. NSW, WA, GPO, PO;

‘secret language’ means language which consists of—

(a) artificial words composed of letters only;

(b) words in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin or Japanese which are not used with their usual meaning in the language or languages to which they belong;

(d) combinations or alterations of words in plain language contrary to the usage of the language; or

(e) words of a language which is not one of the languages specified in paragraph (b) of this definition;

‘the Act’ means the Post and Telegraph Act 1901-1950;

‘the International Telecommunication Convention’ means the International Telecommunication Convention signed at Atlantic City on the second day of October, 1947, and includes any Convention amending or superseding that Convention to which the Commonwealth is a party.

Hours of business.

“4. Telegraph offices shall be open to the public during the hours authorized from time to time by the Postmaster-General.

“PART II.—COMMONWEALTH TELEGRAMS

Conditions of acceptance of telegrams.

“5. Subject to the Act and these Regulations, telegrams are accepted for transmission in accordance with the provisions of the International Telecommunication Convention.”.

3. Regulation 10 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Manner in which telegrams to be written.

“10.—(1.) A telegram tendered for transmission shall be legibly written or typewritten and, wherever practicable, written on the appropriate telegram form.

“(2.) A telegram shall not be accepted unless it is written by the use of combinations of some of the following letters, figures and signs:—

Letters.—The letters of the English alphabet.

Figures.—1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0.

Punctuation Signs.—Full stop(.), Comma(,), Colon (:), Note of Interrogation (?), Apostrophe (‘), Hyphen or Dash (-), Inverted commas (“).

Other Signs.—Brackets (), Fraction bar or Oblique stroke (/), Underline (_), Pound sign (£).”.

4. Regulation 18 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Text of telegrams.

“18. The text of a telegram shall be written—

(a) in plain language;

(b) in secret language; or

Mixture in one group of figures and letters with secret meaning.

5. Regulation 19 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended by omitting the words “plain language or code telegrams as well as in cipher telegrams, but the” and inserting in their stead the words “a telegram but a”.

6. Regulations 22 to 30 (inclusive) of the Telegraph Regulations are repealed and the following regulations inserted in their stead:—

Doubtful words.

“22. Where, in a telegram written in English—

(a) the sender includes words which are not contained in Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language;

(b) the officer to whom the telegram is tendered for transmission doubts whether the words are English words; and

those words shall be treated as secret language.

Certain groups inadmissible.

“23. A telegram which contains a group consisting of—

(a) figures and letters; or

(b) figures or letters and signs,

which has a secret meaning shall not be accepted for transmission.

Method of charging.

“24.—(1.) Subject to this regulation, all words and symbols written in a telegram by the sender and intended for transmission shall be charged for.

“(2.) Dashes which serve only to separate different words or groups shall not be transmitted.

“(3.) Punctuation signs and other signs shall be transmitted only if the sender expressly requests that this be done.

Method of counting.

“25. In a plain language or secret language telegram the following shall each be counted as one word:—

(a) in the address—the name of the telegraph office of destination;

(b) where the telegram is addressed to a telegraph office in the State of New South Wales, South Australia or Western Australia—the name of that State appearing in the address;

(d) the pair of signs which serve to mark a parenthesis;

(e) the pair of signs which serve to show that a passage is written in inverted commas; and

(f) each other isolated letter, figure and punctuation or other sign which the sender desires to be transmitted.

Counting of plain language telegrams.

“26.—(1,) Subject to this regulation, where the text of a telegram is composed entirely of plain language, a word containing not more than fifteen characters shall be counted as one word and a word containing more than fifteen characters shall be counted at the rate of one word for each fifteen characters or part thereof which it contains,

“(2.) A group described in paragraph (b), (c), (d), (e) or (f) of the definition of ‘plain language’ in regulation 3 of these Regulations shall be counted at the rate of one word for each five characters or part thereof which it contains.

Counting of secret language telegrams.

“27. Where the text of a telegram is composed entirely of secret language, each group containing not more than five characters shall be counted as one word, and each group containing more than five characters shall be counted as one word for each five characters or portion thereof which it contains.

Counting of telegrams partly in plain language and partly in secret language.

“28. Where a telegram is written partly in plain language and partly in secret language, the words in plain language shall be counted as in a plain language telegram and the words in secret language shall be counted as in a secret language telegram.”.

The letters “O.P.O.” and “P.O.” when used in address to be counted as one word.

7. Regulation 33 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed.

Counting of groups containing figures and letters and signs.

8. Regulation 38 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended—

(a) by inserting in sub-regulation (2.), after the word “letters”, the words “, not forming a word or an abbreviation of a word,”; and

(b) by omitting from sub-regulation (3.) the words “and/or letters” and inserting in their stead the words “or letters or figures and letters”.

Urgent-rate telegrams.

9. Regulation 53 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed.

Press telegrams and broadcasting telegrams.

10. Regulation 63 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended by omitting from paragraph (a) of sub-regulation (4.) the words “broadcasting station” and inserting in their stead the words “national or commercial broadcasting station”.

Department not liable for errors, &c.

11. Regulation 60 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended by omitting from sub-regulation (1.) the words “In accordance with the provisions of the International Telegraph Convention,”.

Production of telegrams.

12. Regulation 70 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended by omitting the words “the Director of the Investigation Branch of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, the Chairman of an Appeal Board or a Board of Inquiry constituted under the Commonwealth Public Service Act 1922-1939,” inserting in their stead the words “the Director of the Commonwealth Investigation Service, the Chairman of an Appeal Board or a Board of Inquiry constituted under the Public Service Act 1922-1950”.

13. Regulation 73 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Order of transmission.

“73. International telegrams, other than International letter telegrams, shall be given precedence of Commonwealth telegrams.”.

Telephoning of telegrams by subscribers.

14. Regulation 75 of the Telegraph Regulations is amended by omitting from paragraph (c) of sub-regulation (11.) the words “code or cipher groups” and inserting in their stead the words “secret language”.

15. Regulation 78 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Postmaster-General may provide private telegraph channels.

“78.—(1.) The Postmaster-General may, upon request made by a person or firm, provide a private telegraph channel, not connecting with the public telegraph system, for the purpose of the exchange of messages relating exclusively to the business of the person or firm.

“(2.) The Postmaster-General may provide the necessary apparatus and power and the services of telegraphists for operating the channel or may, subject to such conditions as he sees fit, permit the person or firm to provide either the necessary apparatus and power or the services of employees for operating the channel or both.

“(3.) Messages which do not relate exclusively to the business of the person or firm or messages to or from a person or firm other than the first-mentioned person or firm, or the employees of that first-mentioned person or firm, shall not be exchanged over the channel.

“(4.) The charges for private telegraph channels shall, in each ease, be fixed by the Postmaster-General.”.

Repeal.

16. Regulation 80 of the Telegraph Regulations is repealed.

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By Authority: L. F. JOHNSTON, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.

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