Cap. 50 Art. 21Registration and regulation of persons carrying on business of receiving packets.

(1) Every person who carries on, whether alone or in conjunction with any other business, the business of receiving for reward letters, communications, or other packets for delivery or for forwarding to the persons for whom they are intended, shall, as soon as may be, send to the Commissioner of Police, for registration by him, notice of the fact together with the address or addresses where the business is carried on; and the Commissioner of Police shall keep a register of the names and addresses of such persons, and shall, if required by any person who sends such a notice, furnish him on payment of a fee of twelve cents (0.12) with a certificate of registration; and every person so registered shall from time to time furnish to the Commissioner of Police notice of any change of address or new address at which the business is shall make a record for retention purposes the following particulars:

(a) the name and address of every person for whom any packet is received, or who has requested that packets received may be delivered or forwarded to him;

(b) any instructions that may have been received as to the delivery or forwarding of packets;

(c) in the case of every packet received the place from which the packet comes, and the date of sending and the date of receipt, and the name and address of the sender if shown on the outside of the packet, and, in the case of a registered packet, the date and office of registration and the number of the registered packet;

(d) in the case of every packet delivered, the date of delivery and the name and address of the person to whom it is delivered;

(e) in the case of every packet forwarded, the name and address to which and the date on which it is forwarded, and shall not deliver a packet to any person until that person has signed a receipt for the same, nor, if that person is not the person to whom the packet is addressed, unless there are left with him instructions signed by the last mentioned person as to the delivery thereof, and shall not forward any packet to another address unless there are left with him written instructions to that effect signed by the addressee.

(3) The records so kept by any such person, shall be kept at all reasonable times open to inspection by any Police officer.

(4) If any person contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this article, or furnishes any false information or makes any false entry, he shall, for each offence, be liable, on conviction by a Court of Magistrates (Malta) or the Court of Magistrates (Gozo) as the case may be, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month, or to a fine (multa) not exceeding two hundred and thirty-two euros and ninety-four cents (232.94), or to both such imprisonment and fine.

(5) Nothing in this article shall apply to packets addressed, to any office where any newspaper or periodical is published, being packets in reply to advertisements appearing in such newspaper or periodical.

(6) Nothing in this article shall be construed as rendering legal anything which would be in contravention of the executive privilege of the Postmaster General under the Post Office Act.

(7) For the purposes of this article the word "packet" shall have the same meaning attributed to the word "packet" in article 2 of the Post Office Act.

similar duty, any information in his power relating to an offence or suspected offence under this Act, and, if so required, and upon tender of his reasonable expenses, to attend at such time and place as may be specified for the purpose of furnishing such information, and if any person fails to give any such information or to attend as aforesaid, he shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine (multa) or to both such imprisonment and fine.