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Agreement between the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning the Exchange of Money Orders Between the Trust Territory of Nauru and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony [1963] PITSE 1 (23 September 1963)

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND CONCERNING THE EXCHANGE OF MONEY ORDERS BETWEEN THE TRUST TERRITORY OF NAURU AND THE GILBERT AND ELLICE ISLANDS COLONY
(London-Canberra, 23-27 September 1963)

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 1 OCTOBER 1963

In order to establish an exchange of Money Orders between the Trust Territory of Nauru and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, the undersigned, duly authorised for that purpose, have agreed upon the following Articles:

Article I

There shall be a regular exchange of Money Orders between the Trust Territory of Nauru and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony.

Article II

The amount of the Money Orders exchanged in both directions shall be expressed in Australian currency.

Article III

The maximum amount for which a Money Order may be drawn in either territory upon the other shall be forty pounds. No Money Order shall contain a fractional part of a penny.

Article IV

Each ordinary Money Order shall be in the form numbered 1 in the Schedule to this Agreement and shall be delivered to the remitter thereof to be forwarded by him at his own expense to the payee. An advice of each such Money Order in the form numbered 1A in the Schedule to this Agreement shall be prepared by the Post Office concerned when the Money Order is competed. Advices of ordinary Money Orders shall be despatched in accordance with Article XV of this Agreement.

Article V

Telegraphic Money Orders shall be subject to the following conditions:

1. Telegraphic Money Orders shall be in the form numbered 2 in the Schedule to this Agreement and shall not exceed the maximum amount allowed in the case of ordinary Money Orders, viz., forty pounds, and an Advice of each such Telegraphic Money Order in the form numbered 2A in such Schedule shall be prepared by the Post Office concerned when the Telegraphic Money Order is completed. Such Advice shall be returned by the Post Office for use by it in ensuring due payment of the Order.

2. The remitter of a Telegraphic Money Order shall be required to pay, in addition to the ordinary Money Order Commission, the cost of the telegram of advice at the ordinary rate per word from one territory to the other.

3. The remitter of a Telegraphic Money Order shall on paying for the additional words required, be allowed to add to the official telegram of advice any short communication which he may wish to send to the payee.

4. The telegram of advice shall be prepared in accordance with the following specimen; the amount being represented by a code word or code words given in the Australian Post Office List of Code Words:

Explanation of above

(a) Code word to represent amount of Order to nearest ten shillings.

(b) Serial number of Order at Office of issue.

(c) Amount of Order; to be invariably stated in words.

(d) Name of payee (forename as well as surname, or first and second names) and full address of payee.

(e) Private message for payee. Such a message may be added if the remitter desires so.

(f) Name of remitter.

5. Telegraphic Money Orders may not be made payable to a box number or telegraphic code address, but must be in the name of a person or firm.

6. The maximum amount of a single telegram of advice shall be limited to one hundred pounds.

7. In the case of this maximum which would include two Orders of forty pounds and one of twenty pounds only one telegram of advice will be necessary but it must contain the three Money Orders numbers such as 742/3/4.

8. Telegraphic Money Orders shall be advised to each territory on the usual Money Order Advice List, in the form numbered 3 in the Schedule to this Agreement the Money Order numbers being prefixed on the list by the letter "T".

9. In the case of errors or fictitious telegrams, the responsibility for any losses involved, shall be borne by the territory in whose service the error or fraud was committed. In cases where it is impossible to determine in which service the error or fraud was committed, the responsibility for any losses involved shall be shared equally by the Trust Territory of Nauru and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony Post Offices.

10. The Telegraphic Money Orders shall be exchanged in both directions between the Nauru Post Office and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony Post Offices at Tarawa and Ocean Island.

11. When the address in a Telegraphic Money Order indicates that the payee resides on an island other than Tarawa or Ocean Island, the Postmaster at the Exchange Office at Tarawa shall be responsible for forwarding the order to the payee in the first mail.

12. In other respects Telegraphic Money Orders shall be subject to the same regulations as ordinary Money Orders.

Article VI

The Administrator of the Trust Territory of Nauru shall have power to fix the rates of commission on all Money Orders issued within his jurisdiction, and the Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony shall have the same power in regard to all Money Orders issued in the Colony.

Article VII

The Chief Postmaster of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and the Administrator of the Trust Territory of Nauru shall communicate to the other the tariff of charges or rates of commission which shall be established under this Agreement 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 Postmaster at the Exchange Offices in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and the Administrator of the Trust Territory of Nauru is authorised to suspend temporarily the exchange of Money Orders in case the course of exchange or any other circumstances should give rise to abuse or cause detriment to the postal revenue.

Article VIII

Each territory shall retain the commission charged on all Money Orders issued within its jurisdiction, but shall pay to the other territory one half of 1% of the amount of such Orders.

Article IX

Money Orders shall be drawn only on the authorised Money Order Offices of the respective territories, and the Chief Postmaster of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony shall furnish to the Administrator of the Trust Territory of Nauru a list of such offices and shall from time to time notify any addition to or change in such list.

Article X

Every Money Order and Advice shall contain the name of the office at which it is intended that payment shall be made, and no Order shall be issued unless the applicant furnishes the forename and surname, or both the first and second names of the person to whom the amount is to be paid, and his own forename, surname and address, or the name of the firm or company who are the remitters or payees. In the case of Money Orders issued in the Trust Territory of Nauru on the application of an inhabitant of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, the remitter shall also furnish his home island address, for reference purposes should the Money Order become void after his repatriation.

Article XI

Every Telegraphic Money Order shall be made payable at an Exchange Office only, and shall contain the name of the payee's village, or the name of the payee's village and island when he resides on an island other than Tarawa or Ocean Island in the telegram of advice. When a Telegraphic Money Order is payable to a firm or company the name of the remitter shall be advised as a private message in the telegram of advice.

Article XII

A remitter may obtain an Advice of payment in the form numbered 4 in the Schedule to this Agreement upon prepayment of the fee defined in the Post Office Regulations of the issuing territory. Where advice of payment is required by telegram the applicant shall repay the telegraphic charges at the time of application.

Article XIII

When an enquiry regarding the payment of a Money Order is made by either the remitter or the sender at any time within two years from the date of issue of the Money Order, the enquirer shall pay the search fee defined in the Post Office Regulations of the country of payment, and the cost of all telegrams when the enquiry is made by telegraph.

Article XIV

The following Post Offices shall be exchange Offices in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony:

Tarawa Post Office;

Ocean Island Post Office.

The Post Office of the Trust Territory of Nauru shall be regarded as an Exchange Office for the purposes of the Agreement.

Article XV

Lists of Money Orders issued at Nauru Post Office shall be despatched from that office, accompanied by the relative advices of ordinary Money Orders, direct to the appropriate Money Order Exchange Office in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, and a copy of all such lists shall be sent to the Chief Postmaster, Tarawa.

Lists of Money Orders in the form numbered 3 in the Schedule attached to this Agreement issued in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony shall be despatched, accompanied by the relative advices of ordinary Money Orders, from the issuing Exchange Office direct to the Postmaster, Trust Territory of Nauru. A copy of all such lists shall be sent to the Chief Postmaster, Tarawa.

Money Order lists for each Exchange Office shall be numbered consecutively throughout the year, commencing with No. 1 at the beginning of the month of January in each year.

Article XVI

Each Office of Exchange shall promptly communicate to the other the correction of any simple error which may be discovered in the verification of any list.

When any list contains irregularities which the receiving Office shall not be able to rectify that Office shall apply to the despatching Office for an explanation and such explanation shall be forwarded without delay. Communications regarding errors or irregularities in the lists may be sent by official telegram.

Pending the receipt of an explanation, payment of Money Orders found to be irregular in any list may be suspended at the discretion of the paying office.

All communications concerning irregularities shall be copied to the Chief Postmaster, Tarawa and such copies may be forwarded by post on the form numbered 5 in the Schedule to this Agreement.

Article XVII

The Money Orders drawn by each territory on the other shall be subject, as regards payment, to the regulations which govern the payment of Inland Orders of the territory on which they were drawn. The paid Money Orders shall remain in the possession of the Territory of payment.

Article XVIII

At the close of each quarter, or as soon thereafter as practicable, an account, in duplicate, in the form numbered 6 in the Schedule to this Agreement, shall be prepared and forwarded from the Post Office of the Trust Territory of Nauru to the Chief Postmaster Tarawa, in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. The account shall show in detail the total of the lists containing the particulars of orders despatched from the Trust Territory of Nauru and received from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, and particulars of any repaid or void orders. The balance due by either territory on the account shall be settled by a cheque or draft drawn on a Bank in Australia or by such other means as may mutually be agreed upon.

Article XIX

Duplicate orders shall be issued and transfer of place of payment made only by the Post Office of the Territory on which the original Orders were drawn, and in conformity with the regulations of that Territory.

Article XX

Repayment of Money Orders to remitters shall not be made until an authorisation of such repayment shall first have been obtained by the territory of issue from the territory of payment and the amounts of repaid Money Orders shall be duly credited to the former territory in the quarterly account.

It is within the province of the Post Office of each territory to determine the manner in which repayment to the remitter is to be made.

Article XXI

Money Orders which shall not have been paid within twelve months from the last day of the month of issue shall become void and the sums shall accrue to, and be at the disposal of the territory of issue. The Post Office of the Trust Territory of Nauru shall therefore enter to the credit of the Post Office of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in the quarterly account all Money Orders entered on the lists received from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony which remain unpaid at the end of the period specified.

On the other hand, the Post Office of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony shall at the close of each month transmit to the Post Office of the Trust Territory of Nauru for entry in the quarterly account, a detailed statement in the form numbered 7 in the Schedule to this Agreement of all Money Orders included in the lists despatched from the latter territory which under this Article have become void.

Article XXII

The Post Offices of the two territories may by mutual agreement make modifications if found expedient in matters of detail connected with the execution of this agreement in order to provide for greater security against fraud, or for the better working of the system.

Article XXIII

This Agreement shall take effect on the first day of October in the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-three and shall continue in force until six months after either of the contracting parties shall have notified to the other its intention to terminate it.

DONE in duplicate and signed at Canberra on the 27th day of September 1963

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA:

[Signed:]

ROBERT MENZIES

DONE in duplicate and signed at London on September 23rd 1963

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM:

[Signed:]

DEVONSHIRE

SCHEDULE
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