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Post Office and Telegraph Act 1915
(5 & 6 Geo 5 c.82, 28th October 1915)

An Act to alter certain statutory limits of Postal and Telegraph Rates; and for purposes connected therewith.
[28th October 1915]

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:

1. For the purpose of enabling effect to be given to certain proposed changes of postal and telegraph rates, the following variations shall have effect with respect to the statutory limits applicable to those rates:–

  1. A maximum rate of a halfpenny for every six ounces in weight or for every fractional part of six ounces over and above the first or any additional six ounces up to such maximum weight as may be fixed by the Postmaster-General shall be substituted for the maximum rate of one halfpenny for each inland registered newspaper under subsection (1) (b) (iii) of section two of the Post Office Act, 1908; and
  2. A maximum rate of ninepence for the first twelve words of each ordinary written telegram or for an ordinary written telegram of less than twelve words shall be substituted for the maximum rate of sixpence under section two of the Telegraph Act, 1885; and
  3. The maximum rates for press telegrams under section sixteen of the Telegraph Act, 1868, shall be varied as follows:–

    A rate of a shilling for every eighty words shall be substituted for the rate of a shilling for every hundred words transmitted between the hours of six p.m. and nine a.m. to a single address;

    A rate of a shilling for every sixty words shall be substituted for the rate of a shilling for every seventy-five words transmitted between the hours of nine a.m. and six p.m. to a single address;

    An additional charge of threepence for every eighty or sixty words, as the case may be, of the same telegraphic communication transmitted to an additional address shall be substituted for the rate of twopence for every hundred or seventy-five words as the case may be;

but rates for press telegrams shall not be raised above the limits existing immediately before the passing of this Act until after the thirty-first day of December nineteen hundred and sixteen.

2.—(1) Any contract for the supply or delivery to subscribers of newspapers, periodicals, or other publications at rates including postage, so far as the contract includes the supply or delivery of publications the rate of postage on which is increased after the passing of this Act and before the first day of January nineteen hundred and sixteen, may be determined by any party to the contract as from the date on which the rate is raised by notice given to the other party to the contract not later than fourteen days after the increase of rate takes effect.

(2) In computing, for the purposes of subsection (2) of section two of the Post Office (Parcels) Act, 1882 , the amount of the remuneration to railway companies for the carriage of parcels, there shall be excluded from the gross receipts of the Postmaster-General any increase in those receipts which is attributable to any increase in the rates of postage for parcels which is made after the passing of this Act and during the continuance of the present war and a period of six months thereafter.

3. This Act may be cited as thePost Office and Telegraph Act, 1915, and may be cited with the Post Office Act, 1908, as the Post Office Acts, 1908 to 1915, and so far as relates to Telegraphs, with the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to 1913.