Letters sent by a messenger on purpose, concerning the Messenger, private affairs of the sender or receiver; Commissions or returns thereof, and affidavits or writs, Commissions, process or proceedings or returns thereof, issuing out of a writs, &c. court of justice; Letters addressed to a place out of Canada and sent by Private sea and by a private vessel; vessel, Letters lawfully brought into Canada, and immediately Posted on posted at the nearest Post Office; arrival, Letters of merchants, owners of vessels of merchandise, or Letters with of the cargo or loading therein, sent by such vessel of mer- goods, &c., chandise, or by any person employed by such owners for the carriage of such letters according to their respective addresses, and delivered to the persons to whom they are respectively addressed, without pay, hire, reward, advantage or profit for so doing; Letters concerning goods or merchandise sent by common The same. known carriers to be delivered with the goods to which such letters relate, without hire or reward, profit or advantage for receiving or delivering them : But nothing herein contained shall authorize any person Proviso. to collect any such excepted letters for the purpose of sending or conveying them as aforesaid, or shall oblige any person to send any newspaper, pamphlet or printed book by post. Postage. 31. Any person may, and any officer or person employed In case of in the Post Office or in the collection of the revenue of the contravention letters may be Dominion, shall seize any letters conveyed, received, col- seized and lected, sent or delivered in contravention of this Act, and charged with take them to the nearest Post Office, and give such information to the Postmaster as he may be able to give, and as is necessary for the effectual prosecution of the offender; and the letters shall moreover be chargeable with letter postage. BRANCH OFFICES AND DELIVERY IN CITIES, &C. Cities. 32. The Postmaster General may, when in his judgment Establishthe public interest or convenience requires it, establish one ment and regulation of or more Branch Post Offices to facilitate the operation of the Branch Post Post Office in any city or place which in his opinion Offices in requires any such additional accommodation for the convenience of the inhabitants; and he may prescribe the rules and regulations for the Branch Post Offices established by virtue of this Act; and no additional postage shall be charged for the receipt or delivery of any letter or packet at such Branch Post Office. Employment of Letter 33. The Postmaster General may, whenever the same may be proper for the accommodation of the public in any city or town, employ letter carriers for the delivery of letters rate of City received at the Post Office in such city or town (except such Carriers in Postage. The rates. Carriers to as the persons to whom they are addressed, may have requested, in writing addressed to the Postmaster, to be retained in the Post Office,) and for the receipt of letters at such places in such city or town as the Postmaster General may direct, and for the deposit of the same in the Post Office: 2. And for the delivery by a carrier of each letter received from the Post Office, the person to whom the same is delivered shall pay not exceeding two cents, and for the delivery of each newspaper and pamphlet one cent; all of which receipts, by the carriers in any city or town, shall be accounted for to the Postmaster General : 3. Each of such carriers shall give bond, with sureties to give security be approved by the Postmaster General, for the safe custody and delivery of all letters, and for the due account and payment of all moneys received by him. Provision for 34. It shall be lawful for the Postmaster General, with the consent of the Governor in Council, to establish in any city, when he shall deem it expedient, a system of free delivery by letter carrier of letters brought by mail, and he may direct that, from the time that such system is so established, no charge shall be made for the delivery of such letters by letter carriers in such city; and such system of free delivery when established in any city shall be subject to such regulations as the Postmaster General shall, from time to time, see fit to make. Parcel Post. Rate to be PARCEL POST. 35. The Postmaster General may establish and maintain a parcel post; and closed parcels, other than letters and not containing letters, may be sent by such parcel post; and fixed by P. M when so sent shall be liable to such charges for conveyance and to such regulations, as the Postmaster General shall, from time to time, see fit to make. General. Certain Letters and FRANKING AND FREE MAIL MATTER. 36. All letters and other mailable matter addressed to or sent by the Governor or sent to or by any department of the able matter to Government at the seat of government, shall be free other mail be free of Postage. of Canada postage under such regulations as may, from time to time, be made in that respect by the Governor in Council: Commons. 2. Letters and other mailable matter addressed to or sent Senate and by the Speaker or Chief Clerk of the Senate or of the House House of of Commons shall be free of Canada postage. Letters and other mailable matter addressed to or by any Member of either House at the seat of government, during any Session of Parliament, or to any of the Members at the seat of government as aforesaid, during the ten days next before the meeting of Parliament, shall be free of postage: ary Library. 3. All books belonging to the Library of Parliament at Books from Ottawa may be sent from the same to any Member of Parliamenteither House or from any such Member addressed to the Librarian, during the recess of Parliament, and free of postage in either case: 4. The privilege of free transmission as above given in this Limitation. section shall apply only to mail matter passing between the seat of Government and places in Canada: 5. Members of either the Senate or House of Commons Parliamentof Canada may, during the recess of Parliament, send by mail ary papers. free of postage, all papers printed by order of either House; and Members of the Legislature of any one of the Provinces of. the Dominion may in like manner send by mail free of postage all papers printed by order of such Legislature: 6. The Postmaster General may prescribe the conditions Post Office and circumstances under which letters, accounts and papers, letters, &c. relating solely to the business of the Post Office, and addressed to or sent by some officer thereof, shall be free from Canada Postage: 7. Petitions and Addresses to the Provincial Legislatures Petitions of any of the Provinces of the Dominion, or to any branch to Local Legislature. thereof, and also Votes and Proceedings and other papers printed by order of any such Legislatures or any branch thereof, may be sent free of postage under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe. PROPERTY IN POST LETTERS, AND OTHER MAILABLE MATTER. mailable 37. From the time any letter, packet, chattel, money or Property in thing is deposited in the Post Office for the purpose of being matter. sent by post, it shall cease to be the property of the sender, and shall be the property of the party to whom it is addressed or the legal representatives of such party: And the Postmaster General shall not be liable to any party for the loss of any letter packet or other thing sent by post; nor shall. any letter or packet or other mailable matter be liable to demand, seizure, or detention, whilst in the Post Office, or in the custody of any person employed in the Canada Post Office,-under legal process against the sender thereof, or against Dead Letters, how dealt with. If containing money. Detention, &c, If any such goods be found. against the party or legal representatives of the party to whom it may be addressed. DEAD LETTERS. 38. Letters, or other articles, which from any cause remain undelivered in any Post Office, or which, having been posted, cannot be forwarded by post, shall, under such regulations as the Postmaster General may make, be transmitted by Postmasters to the Post Office Department as Dead Letters, there to be opened and returned to the writers on payment of any postage due thereon with three cents additional on each Dead Letter to defray the costs of returning the same, less in the case of insufficiently prepaid letters or other mailable matter posted in Canada, such amount of postage as may have been prepaid on the same; or such Dead Letters may in any case or class of cases be otherwise disposed of as the Postmaster General may direct: 2. If any such Dead Letter, of which the writer cannot be ascertained or found, contains money, the Postmaster General may appropriate it as Postal Revenue, keeping_an account thereof; and the amount shall be paid by the Department to the rightful claimant as soon as he is found. LETTERS CONTAINING CONTRABAND GOODS. 39. The Postmaster General, or any Postmaster, by him to that effect duly authorized, may detain any Post Letter or other article of mail matter suspected to contain any contraband goods, wares or merchandise, or any goods, wares or merchandise on the importation of which into Canada any duties of customs are by law payable, and suspected to have been enclosed therein and sent by post to evade payment of such duties, and forward the same to the nearest Collector of Her Majesty's Customs, who, in the presence of the person to whom the same may be addressed, or in his absence in case of non-attendance, after due notice in writing from such Collector requiring his attendance, left at or forwarded by the post according to the address on the letter or other article of mail matter, may open and examine the same : 2. And if, on any such examination, any contraband goods, wares, or merchandise, or any goods, wares or merchandise on the importation of which into Canada any duties of customs are payable, are discovered, such Collector may detain the letter or other article of mail matter and its contents for And if not.. the purpose of prosecution; and if no contraband goods, wares or merchandise, or any goods, wares or merchandise on the importation of which into Canada any duties of cu toms are by law payable, are discovered in such letter other article of mail matter it shall, if the party to whom it is addressed addressed is present, be handed over to him on his paying the postage (if any) charged thereon, or if he is not present, it shall be returned to the Post Office and be forwarded to the place of its address. TOLLS-AND FERRIES. Ferries. Mails 40. No mail stage, or other winter or summer vehicle Tolls and carrying a mail, shall be exempted from tolls or dues on any when exempt. road or bridge in Canada, unless in the Act or charter authorizing such road or bridge, it is specially so provided: 2. Every ferryman shall, upon request and without delay, Obligations convey over his ferry any courier or other person travelling of ferrymen. with the mail, and the carriage and horse, or horses employed in carrying the same, and the sum to be paid for such service shall be fixed by contract; or if any ferryman demands more than the Post Office authorities or the contractor for carrying the mail are willing to pay, the amount to be paid shall be fixed by arbitrators, each party naming an arbitrator, and the two arbitrators naming a third, the decision of any two arbitrators to be binding: 3. No toll-gate keeper or ferryman shall detain or delay Mail not to be a mail on pretence of demanding toll or ferriage, but the delayed. same, if due and not paid, shall be recovered in the usual course of law from the party liable. UNITED STATES MAILS PASSING THROUGH CANADA. General may to be carried 41. The Postmaster General may, from time to time, with Postmaster the approval of the Governor in Council, make any arrange- allow United ment which he deems just and expedient, for allowing the States mails mails of the United States to be carried or transported over through any portion of Canada, from any one point in the territory Canada on of the said United States to any other point in the same ditions. territory, upon obtaining the like privilege for the transportation of the mails of Canada through the United States when required. certain con while in Canada mails of 42. Every United States mail so carried or transported as Such mails to last aforesaid shall, while in Canada, be deemed and taken be deemed to be a mail of Her Majesty, so far as to make any violation Canada Her thereof, any depredation thereon, or any act or offence in Majesty's respect thereto or to any part thereof, which would be as regards the punishable under the existing laws of Canada if the same ences punishment were a Canada mail or part of a Canada mail, an offence of committed the same degree and magnitude and punishable in the same in respect manner and to the same extent as though the same were a Canada mail or part of a Canada mail;-And in any indictment for such act or offence, such mail or part of a mail may be alleged to be, and on the trial of such indictment shall be thereof. held |