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Convention for the Exchange of Money Orders between the Postmaster General's Department of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Post Office Department of the Colony of Fiji [1906] PITSE 3 (19 January 1906)

CONVENTION FOR THE EXCHANGE OF MONEY ORDERS BETWEEN THE POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF THE COLONY OF FIJI

(Melbourne-Suva, 19 January-13 February 1906)

RETROSPECTIVE ENTRY INTO FORCE: 1 JANUARY 1906

CONVENTION FOR THE EXCHANGE OF MONEY ORDERS BETWEEN THE POSTMASTER GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF THE COLONY OF FIJI

It being considered desirable that a Convention should be entered into by the Post Office Department of the colony of Fiji and the Postmaster General's Department of the Commonwealth of Australia with a view to place upon a uniform basis the existing exchanges of money orders between Fiji and the several States of the Commonwealth of Australia, the undersigned, duly authorised for the purpose, have agreed upon the following Articles:

Article 1

There shall be a regular exchange of money orders between the colony of Fiji and the several States of the Commonwealth of Australia namely, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Article 2

The maximum amount for which a money order may be drawn in either country upon the other shall be forty pounds (£40) sterling.

No money order shall contain a factional part of a penny.

The amount of each money order whether issued in the colony of Fiji or in the Commonwealth of Australia must be expressed in sterling.

Article 3

The amounts of money orders deposited by the remitters and paid to the payees shall be in gold coin, or any other legal money of the same current value.

Article 4

Each money order shall be delivered to the remitter thereof to be forwarded by him, at his own expense, to the payee.

Article 5

The Post Office Department of the colony of Fiji and the Postmaster General's Department of the Commonwealth of Australia shall each have the power to fix, from time to time, the rates of commission to be charged on all money orders they may respectively issue. This commission shall be retained by the issuing Postal Administration, but the Post Office Department of the colony of Fiji shall pay to the Postmaster General's Department of the Commonwealth of Australia one half of one percent (½ of 1%) on the amount of money orders issued in Fiji and payable in the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Postmaster General's Department of the Commonwealth of Australia shall make a like payment to the Post Office Department of the colony of Fiji on the amount of money orders issued in the Commonwealth of Australia and payable in Fiji.

Article 6

Each Department shall communicate to the other its tariff of charges or rates of commission on money orders exchanged between the two countries and these rates shall, in all cases, be payable in advance by the remitter and shall not be repayable.

It is understood, moreover, that each Department is authorised to suspend, temporarily, the exchange of money orders in case any circumstance should give rise to abuses or cause detriment to the postal revenue.

Article 7

Money orders shall be drawn only on the authorised money order offices of the respective countries, and each postal administration shall furnish to the other a list of such offices and shall from time to time, notify any addition to or change in such list.

Article 8

Every money order and advice must contain the name of the office at which it is intended that payment shall be made and in the case of Australia the name of the State in which such office is situated. No money order shall be issued unless the applicant furnishes the Christian name and surname of the person to whom the amount is to be paid, and his own Christian name, surname and address, or the name of the firm or company who are the remitters or payees.

Article 9

The service of the postal money order system between the two countries shall be performed exclusively by the agency of offices of exchange. On the part of the colony of Fiji the office of exchange shall be Suva and on the part of the Commonwealth of Australia, the offices of exchange shall be, for New South Wales, Sydney; for Victoria, Melbourne; for Queensland, Brisbane; for South Australia, Adelaide; for Western Australia, Perth; and for Tasmania, Hobart.

Article 10

Lists of money orders issued shall be despatched from each office of exchange accompanied by the relative advices. The lists shall be numbered consecutively throughout the year commencing with number one at the beginning of the month of January in each year and ending with the last number included in the transactions of the year. Lists shall be despatched only when there are advices to be forwarded.

Money orders issued in December, the relative advices of which have failed to reach the respective offices of exchange until the month of January following, shall be entered in supplementary lists of the year in which the orders were issued.

Article 11

The advices on their arrival at the office of exchange in the country of payment shall be compared with the entries in the list and afterwards date stamped and despatched to the paying offices.

Article 12

Each office of exchange shall promptly communicate to the other the correction of any simple error which it may discover in the verification of the lists.

When the lists shall show irregularities which the receiving office cannot rectify, that office shall apply to the despatching office for an explanation and such explanation shall be furnished without delay.

Pending the receipt of the explanation payment of orders found to be erroneous in the list may be suspended at the discretion of the paying office.

Article 13

The money orders drawn by each country on the other shall be subject, as regards payment, to the regulations which govern the payment of inland orders on the country on which they are drawn.

The paid orders shall remain in the possession of the country of payment.

Article 14

Duplicate money orders shall be issued and transfer of payment made only by the postal administration of the country on which the original orders were drawn, and in conformity with the regulations established or to be established in that country.

Article 15

Repayment of the amounts of money orders shall not be made to the remitters until it has been ascertained, through the postal administration of the country where such order is payable that the orders have not been paid, and will not be paid at the office of payment, and that the amounts have been placed to the credit of the issuing country.

Article 16

Money orders which shall not have been paid within twelve calendar months after the month of issue shall become void, and the sums received shall accrue to, and be at the disposal of the country of issue. The colony of Fiji shall enter to the credit of the several States of the Commonwealth of Australia in the quarterly accounts the amounts of all money orders, entered in the lists received by that office from the respective offices of exchange for such States which remain unpaid at the end of the period specified. On the other hand the several offices of exchange of the Postmaster General's Department of the Commonwealth of Australia shall, at the expiration of each month, transmit to Fiji for entry in the quarterly accounts, detailed statements of all orders included in the lists despatched from Fiji, which, under this Article, have become void.

Article 17

At the close of each quarter, or as soon thereafter as practicable, an account in duplicate shall be prepared and forwarded from the office of the Secretary, Postmaster General's Department, Melbourne, to the Colonial Postmaster, Suva, Fiji. It shall show, in detail the totals of the lists containing the particulars of money orders issued in and despatched during the quarter from each office of exchange to which such account relates and the totals of repaid orders authorised during such quarter, as also the totals of void orders.

Should the balance of the account when accepted be in favour of the Commonwealth of Australia, the amount due shall unless otherwise mutually arranged be paid by the Post Office Department of Fiji by means of a bill of exchange payable at sight and drawn upon a bank in Melbourne, Victoria. On the other hand, should the balance be in favour of the colony of Fiji the amount due shall be paid by the Postmaster General's Department, Commonwealth of Australia, by means of a bill of exchange payable at sight and drawn upon a bank in Suva.

It is further provided that as soon as one of the countries of exchange, the colony of Fiji on the one hand and the Commonwealth of Australia on the other hand, shall ascertain that it owes the other a balance exceeding five hundred pounds (£500) sterling, the indebted country of exchange shall cause the approximate amount of such balance to be paid in the manner above indicated, to the other country of exchange.

Article 18

The Postal Administration in either country shall be authorised to adopt any additional rules, if not repugnant to the foregoing for greater security against fraud or for the better working of the system generally. All such additional rules, however, must be communicated to the Postal Administration of the other country.

Article 19

This Convention shall take effect on 1 January 1906 and shall continue in force until twelve months after either of the contracting countries shall have notified to the other its intention to terminate it.

DONE in duplicate and signed at Suva, Fiji, on the 13th day of February 1906 and in Melbourne on the 19th day of January 1906.