Post Office (Amendment) Act 1935

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved


Post Office (Amendment) Act, 1935,

(25 & 26 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 15.

An Act to amend the Post Office Act, 1908, and other enactments relating to the Post Office.

[28th March 1935]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 Provisions as to money orders.

1 Provisions as to money orders.

(1) The special form in which postal orders may be issued in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-four of the principal Act shall be prescribed by the Postmaster-General, and accordingly in subsection (1) of that section for the words ‘the regulations made under the preceding section’ there shall be substituted the word ‘him’.

(2) Proviso (a ) to subsection (1) of the said section twenty-four shall cease to have effect and the amounts for which postal orders may be issued and the poundage to be payable in respect of them shall be such as may be prescribed by Post Office Regulations:

Provided that the poundage payable in respect of a postal order for an amount not exceeding twenty-one shillings shall not exceed twopence.

(3) Proviso (b ) to subsection (1) of the said section twenty-four (which provides that a postal order shall not be issued until the amount thereof has been paid) shall cease to have effect, and proviso (c ) to that subsection shall have effect as if the words ‘such period after the date of the issue of a postal order as may be prescribed by Post Office regulations’ were substituted for the words ‘three months from the last day of the month in which a postal order is issued by the Post Office’.

(4) Subsection (2) of the said section twenty-four (which provides that no interest shall be payable in respect of any postal order) shall apply to all money orders.

S-2 Amendment as to postal rates.

2 Amendment as to postal rates.

(1) Paragraph (c of section two of the principal Act (which fixes the highest rate of postage on single newspapers) shall cease to have effect.

(2) Paragraph (d ) of the said subsection (which authorises special rates for postal packets consisting of books and papers impressed for the use of the blind) shall have effect as if after the word ‘blind’ there were inserted the words ‘or paper posted to any person for the purpose of being so impressed or any articles specially adapted for the use of the blind.’

(3) It is hereby declared that a warrant of the Treasury made for the purposes of subsection (2) of section two of the principal Act may provide that, in such cases and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed therein, no additional postage shall be charged on an inland letter or packet which is not prepaid or is insufficiently prepaid, or that the postage so charged shall be at such rate less than double the amount of the postage otherwise chargeable, or of the deficiency, as may be so prescribed.

S-3 Extension of 45 & 46 Vict. c. 74, ss. 14 & 15 to all postal packets.

3 Extension of 45 & 46 Vict. c. 74, ss. 14 & 15 to all postal packets.

(1) The provisions of sections fourteen and fifteen of the Post Office (Parcels) Act, 1882 (which relate to the application of the Customs Acts to parcels) shall have effect as if the references in the said section fourteen to ‘foreign parcels’ included references to such foreign postal packets as may be specified by regulations made under that section, and as if the references in the said section fifteen to ‘inland parcels’ included references to such inland postal packets as may be specified in regulations made under that section, and the expressions ‘foreign’ and ‘inland’ shall have the same meaning in relation to such postal packets as they have in relation to parcels.

(2) Subsection (2) of the said section fourteen shall have effect as if the words ‘treaty, convention, or’ were omitted and for the words ‘any foreign state or the government of any British possession’ there were substituted the words ‘the government or postal administration of any other country.’

S-4 Amendment of provisions as to carriage of letters by water and extension to carriage by air.

4 Amendment of provisions as to carriage of letters by water and extension to carriage by air.

(1) Sections twenty-seven to thirty-two, thirty-four and fifty-one of the principal Act shall apply in relation to the carriage of postal packets by air as they apply in relation to the carriage of such packets by water.

(2) Paragraph (a of section thirty of the principal Act, and subsection (3) of that section (which impose a limit on the weight of shipowners' letters) shall cease to have effect.

(3) Post Office regulations made for the purpose of section thirty-one of the principal Act may provide for the allowance to owners of vessels or aircraft of the gratuities mentioned in that section, and subsection (1) of section thirty of the said Act in so far as it relates to such gratuities shall cease to have effect.

(4) The Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act, 1847 , as incorporated with any Act passed after the commencement of this Act or with any scheme or order made under or confirmed by any such Act, shall have effect as if in section twenty-eight thereof (which exempts certain vessels from the provisions of the Act) for the words from ‘or any packet boat’ to ‘any such packet boat or packet’ there were substituted the words ‘or any vessel employed by or under the authority of the Postmaster-General for the conveyance under contract of postal packets as defined by the Post Office Act, 1908 , not being a vessel also conveying passengers or goods for hire or reward, or any mail bag as defined by the said Act conveyed by any such vessel.’

S-5 Provisions as to land.

5 Provisions as to land.

(1) The following subsection shall be substituted for subsection (1) of section forty-six of the principal Act:—

(1) The Postmaster-General may, with the consent of the Treasury, acquire land for the purpose of the Post Office by purchase, exchange, lease, gift or in any other manner whatsoever, and the consent of the Treasury for the purpose of this subsection and of the next following section may be given either generally for any class of case or for any particular transaction.’

(2) Any question as to whether any other land is injuriously affected by the use by the Postmaster-General of any land acquired by him (whether before or after the commencement of this Act), or as to the amount of compensation payable in respect of any such injurious affection, shall, notwithstanding that the land acquired may not be or may not have been compulsorily acquired, be determined by arbitration under and in accordance with the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919 , unless the parties agree on some other method of determination.

(3) The powers of the Postmaster-General under section forty-seven of the principal Act of disposing, with the consent of the Treasury, of land vested in him shall be deemed to include a power to dedicate any such land by deed for the use of the public whether as a highway or otherwise.

(4) In this section, and in sections forty-five to forty-seven of the principal Act, the expression ‘land’ includes any estate or interest in or over land.

S-6 Miscellaneous powers to be exercised by Post Office regulations.

6 Miscellaneous powers to be exercised by Post Office regulations.

(1) Post Office regulations may provide for the disposal of postal packets in course of transmission by post in cases where the Postmaster-General is satisfied that the addressee of a packet is dead.

(2) Post Office regulations made for the purpose of section twelve of the principal Act may prescribe the extent to which written matter may be permitted on the covers of postal packets and the character of the written matter to be so permitted.

S-7 Cash on delivery service.

7 Cash on delivery service.

(1) Any cash on delivery service established by the Postmaster-General in respect of:—

(a ) inland postal packets; and

(b ) postal packets transmitted between a British postal country or British postal agency and any other such country or agency; and

(c ) postal packets transmitted between a British postal country or agency and any country or place outside the British Islands, not being a British postal country or agency, but being a country or place the postal administration of which has made an arrangement with the Postmaster-General for the purpose of this section,

shall be conducted in accordance with such provisions as may be contained in Post Office regulations.

(2) The regulations made for the purpose of this section may prescribe the terms on which and the conditions subject to which a cash on delivery packet may be posted, conveyed and delivered and, in particular, may—

(a ) authorise the Postmaster-General to withhold delivery of such a packet until the sums payable in respect thereof have been paid; and

(b ) provide for the remission to the senders of such packets, by means of money orders, of the sums payable to them in respect of the packets.

(3) Where a cash on delivery packet is delivered in a British postal country or British postal agency without the sums payable in respect thereof having been paid, the Postmaster-General may by notice in writing require the addressee of the packet within the time specified in the notice either to pay the said sums or to redeliver the packet intact to the Postmaster-General, and, if the addressee fails to comply with the notice, the Postmaster-General shall be entitled to recover the said sums as a debt due to him from the addressee.

(4) In this section the expression ‘cash on delivery service’ means a service whereby the...

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