POSTAL ORDERS and MONEY ORDERS.—A postal order is an authority to postmasters to pay a specified sum of money to some person therein named. They are generally used as a means of transmitting pay ments through the post. They can be bought at all money-order offices, and are issued for the sum required, provided it is one of the amounts—from to 20s.—fixed by the authorities. The purchaser pays the value of the order he requires, and also a rateable poundage thereon by way of remuneration to the post office. He can buy as many orders as may be necessary to make up the sum he desires to forward to the payee. If he desires to make up a payment which exceeds the amount of the postal order by not more than fivepence, he can do so, except as regards fractions of a penny, by affixing to the face of the postal order a sufficient sum in postage stamps. Perforated stamps are not accepted for this purpose. A postal order should always be cashed within six months from the last day of the month of its issue, for after the expiration of that period it will only be paid after reference has been made to the chief post office in London. In practice it is advisable to cash a postal order within three months, for thereafter an additional poundage is payable before it will be paid. But payment mat, be deferred by the holder of a postal order, for a period of not more than ten days, if he writes on its face a direction that the same shall not be paid before a date he specifies. When so deferring payment it is essential that he inserts the name of the money-order office at which the order is to be paid. Payment through bankers.—If a postal order is crossed, payment will only be made through a banker, and if the name of a banker is added, payment will only be made through that banker. Special directions are given by the post-office authorities to the purchaser of a postal order that, before parting with it, he should fill in the name of the person to whom the amount is to be paid, and, where possible, the name of the money-order office at which the payment is to be made. The person so named must, before payment can be made, sign the receipt at the foot of the order, and also fill in the name of the money order if that has not been done. A postal order is specifically described on its face as " non-negotiable," and accordingly any person who gives money to another for a postal order runs the risk of being required to return the order, or pay a second time, to the true owner of the order, in case it has been stolen or the person who passed it had otherwise a bad title. Subject to this risk, however, a postal order may be passed from hand to hand like a bank-note. The insertion of the name of the paying office is claimed, by the authorities, to afford a safeguard against payment being made to the wrong person. Once the post office has paid an order there is then an absolute end to its liability, notwithstanding perhaps the person who cashed the order had no title to it. A postmaster is entitled to require the person who presents the order to sign his name thereon before payment, although the name of the payee mentioned in it may have already subscribed his name at the foot in receipt. Miscarriage or loss.—It is advisable to keep a record of
the number and cypher of an order to facilitate inquiry in case of miscarriage or loss. But the post office will make no attempt to trace a niissing order unless and until it has been satisfactorily proved that the name of the payee was inserted before the holder parted with it, and its number can be furnished.
Money orders are issued for any sum not exceeding X10, which does not include a fractional part of a penny. The person procuring one pays a small rate of coinmission in addition to the sum payable under the order, unless he is sending it to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue for inland revenue purposes, when no commission will be payable, and its amount may be any sum not exceeding 1150. There are three classes of these orders—Inland, Foreign, and Telegraph. Inland money orders may be made payable to a particular person (designated either by name or by an official title or descrip tion), or to a form or business undertaking or corporation or society or joint stock company, and may be made payable at any money-order office. When issued, a money order is handed by the postmaster to the remitter to be sent by him to the payee, and a separate advice is sent from the issuing office to the paying. office, containin,,,c, information as to the amount and as to the name of die remitter and of the payee. It will be cashed (when not presented through a bank) only when properly receipted by the payee, and the name of the remitter, as furnished by the applicant, is in ak.,*reement with the advice, unless the postmaster has good reason to believe that the applicant is neither the rightful claimant nor deputed by hiin. The retnitter may cross the order, and make it payable through a bank. He may also defer or abso lutely stop payment. In the latter case the amount will be refunded to the remitter ; but the Postmaster-General incurs no liability if, notwithstanding the instructions given, the order is paid through oversight or negligence on the part of any of his officers. If the payment of an order is refused, in consequence of the remitter's name not being furnished correctly, or in consequence of the signature on the order not corresponding with the entry on the advice, the applicant for payment should communicate with the remitter, and request him to apply personally to the issuing postmaster. Under certain conditions the name of a remitter or payee may be altered, or the office for payment may be changed ; and, in case of loss, a duplicate will be issued. A money order, if still unpaid, lapses and becomes void at the end of twelve months from the month in which it was issued, but when a good reason can be given for the delay in presenting it, an application for a new order will be entertained. See POST OFFICE ; TELEGRAPHS.