Postal services act 1987 (NZ)
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New Zealand
Postal Services Act 1987
[From http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/gpprint/acts/public/text/1987/an/113.html]
Postal Services Act 1987 113
Commenced: 1 Jan 1988
An Act to regulate the provision of postal services
BE IT ENACTED by the Parliament of New Zealand as follows:
1. Short Title and commencement—(1) This Act may be cited as the
Postal Services Act 1987.
(2) This Act shall come into force on the 1st day of January 1988.
2. Interpretation—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise
requires,—
Corporation'' means New Zealand Post Limited, a company
incorporated under the Companies Act 1955 pursuant to the
State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986:
Dangerous enclosure'' includes any explosive, dangerous, or
destructive substance or fluid, and any matter or thing capable,
as packed, of causing injury or damage to any postal article or
any person:
Document exchange'' means a place where documents are deposited
for collection by the addressee:
Letter'' means any form of written communication or other document
or article that is directed to a specific person or a specific
address and is to be conveyed other than by electronic means;
and includes a packet, package, or wrapper containing any such
communication:
Postage stamp'' means an adhesive label or impression on any
stationery denoting payment of the fee chargeable for the
carriage of a postal article:
Postal article'' means a letter, parcel, or other article that has
been posted and has not been delivered; and includes an article
that, although it may have been delivered within the meaning of
subsection (3) of this section, has not reached the hands of the
addressee:
Post office'' means any building, house, room, vehicle, or place
where, under the control of the Corporation, postal articles are
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received or delivered, or where they are sorted, made up, or
dispatched.
(2) An article shall be deemed to have been posted when, for the
purpose of being conveyed or delivered by the Corporation, it has been
put into a Corporation letterbox, or delivered at a post office, or
accepted for the purpose of being conveyed by post by an employee or an
agent of the Corporation in the course of his or her duty or authority.
(3) A postal article shall be deemed to be delivered to the addressee
when it is delivered by the Corporation at his or her house or office,
or into his or her letterbox or rural delivery box, or into the proper
private box at a post office, or to his or her employee or agent or
other person considered to be authorised to receive the article, or
according to the usual manner of delivering postal articles to the
addressee.
3. Restriction on carriage of letters—(1) No person other than the
Corporation shall carry any letter for hire or reward.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall apply to—
(a) Trade announcements, circulars, printed extracts from newspapers,
or advertisements, not addressed to any person:
(b) Letters delivered by an employee of the sender:
(c) Letters delivered by a messenger employed by the sender especially
for the purpose, not being a person employed or engaged in the
course of his or her business or employment in delivering or
procuring the delivery of letters:
(d) Letters exceeding 500 grams in weight:
(e) Letters concerning goods sent with the goods and delivered
therewith:
(f) Letters containing any writ or proceeding out of any Court, or any
legal instrument of any kind:
(g) Letters sent or carried to or from a post office:
(h) Letters carried in accordance with an agreement entered into by
the Corporation:
(i) Letters of 500 grams or less in weight if a charge of $1.75 or
more per letter is made in respect of the carriage, taking
charge, or sending of the letter:
(j) Transfers between document exchanges:
(k) Letters carried to the premises of a provider of electronic mail
services for the purposes of being transmitted as electronic
mail, or letters carried from the premises of such a person
after having been so transmitted.
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(3) The Governor-General may from time to time, by Order in Council,
make regulations declaring—
(a) That a substantial disruption to the services supplied by the
Corporation has occurred; and
(b) That subsection (1) of this section shall not apply for such
period as is specified in the order.
(4) Every person who carries, sends, or takes charge of any letter
contrary to the provisions of this section commits an offence against
this Act and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding $1,000 in respect of every letter to which the breach relates.
4. Stamps—(1) No person other than the Corporation, or any person
authorised for this purpose by the Corporation, may produce postage
stamps.
(2) Every person commits an offence against this Act and shall be
liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 who
produces postage stamps in contravention of this section.
5. Letterboxes—(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the
Corporation may erect and maintain letterboxes or rural delivery boxes
in any road, street, reserve, or public place, under the control of any
authority.
(2) No letterbox or rural delivery box shall be so placed as to
interfere with ordinary traffic.
6. Loss of or delay to postal articles—No person shall have any
right to compensation and no liability shall be imposed upon the
Corporation by reason of any loss, default, delay, or omission in
relation to any letter, except in relation to a letter to which section
3 (2) of this Act applies.
7. Detention of postal articles—(1) Where the Corporation has reason
to suspect that any postal article contains any dangerous enclosure or
is otherwise in contravention of this Act or any other enactment, it may
detain the postal article for opening and examination in accordance with
subsection (2) of this section.
(2) Every postal article which is detained under subsection (1) of
this section may be opened and examined at a post office by 2 or more
persons specially authorised for the purpose by the Corporation, or by
one such authorised person in the presence of another employee of the
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Corporation, or in the presence of an officer of the Customs, and shall
not be opened or examined otherwise.
(3) Where a postal article is intended to be opened or has been opened
under this section, the Corporation shall give notice to that effect to
the addressee if known and, if not known, to the sender thereof if
known.
8. Disposal of article detained under this Act—(1) Subject to the
provisions of this Act, if any postal article opened or examined under
this Act is found to be in contravention, or to have been posted in
contravention, of this Act or of any other enactment, the Corporation
may direct that the postal article be forfeited; and any such article
shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of in accordance with the
directions of the Corporation.
(2) If any postal article opened under this Act is found to be in
fraud or violation, or to have been posted in fraud or violation, of the
Customs Act 1966 or any other Act relating to Customs or any Order in
Council or regulation made under any such Act, it shall be handed over
to the Customs Department to be dealt with in accordance with such Act
or order or regulation.
(3) Every postal article opened under this Act and found to contain
any valuable or saleable enclosure shall, together with its contents, be
safely kept pending its disposition under this section, and a list of
any such postal articles together with a memorandum of the contents
thereof shall be made and preserved.
9. Offender not relieved from liability—The detention, destruction,
or disposal under this Act of a postal article or its enclosure shall
not relieve any person from liability for any offence against this Act
or any other Act.
10. Obligation to pass on postal articles—(1) Where a postal article
that has not been delivered comes into the possession of a person other
than the addressee, that person shall either deliver it to the addressee
or return it to the Corporation.
(2) Every person commits an offence against this Act who neglects or
fails to comply with this section.
11. Wrongful divulgence of contents of a postal article or of
information obtained from postal article—(1) Every officer, employee,
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or agent of the Corporation commits an offence against this Act and
shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding 6 months who divulges to any person, except so far as is
lawfully permitted, any information from or as to the contents of a
postal article that has come to his or her knowledge in the course of
his or her duty.
(2) Every person, other than an officer, employee, or agent of the
Corporation acting in the course of his or her duty, commits an offence
against this Act who, having examined the contents of a postal article
not intended for him or her, divulges without good and sufficient cause
to any person any information obtained by him or her from or as to the
contents of the postal article.
12. Posting of objectionable thing—Every person who posts or causes
to be posted, without reasonable excuse, any postal article containing
any noxious substance or thing, or any dead animal, commits an offence
against this Act.
13. Posting indecent article, etc.—Every person who, with the
intention of offending the recipient, posts or causes to be posted any
postal article containing any indecent article or representation of any
kind commits an offence against this Act.
14. Unlawfully opening postal articles—Every person who wilfully and
without reasonable cause or excuse opens or causes to be opened any
postal article which is not addressed to him or her, commits an offence
against this Act and shall be liable on summary conviction to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months.
15. Posting of dangerous enclosure—(1) Every person commits an
offence against this Act, and shall be liable on summary conviction to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year who posts, or causes to be
posted, any postal article containing any dangerous enclosure.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall apply to poisons
when sent and packed in accordance with conditions prescribed by any
enactment or by the Corporation.
16. Recording on a postal article incorrect time and place of
posting—Every person commits an offence against this Act who falsely
marks any postal article so as to lead any person to believe that it was
posted at a time or place other than the time at which or place from
which it was in fact posted.
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17. Offences—(1) Every person who commits an offence against this
Act in respect of which a penalty is not specifically provided elsewhere
in this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding $1,000.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in the Summary Proceedings Act 1957, any
information in respect of an offence against this Act may be laid at any
time within 12 months from the time when the matter of the information
arose, and any proceedings brought under this Act by way of complaint
may be commenced at any time within 12 months from the time when the
matter of complaint arose.