(2) When the Administration has given a receipt or other document substantially equivalent thereto, it may require its surrender or a reasonable indemnity against claims thereon before delivering the property.

(3) When any property or sale proceeds in the possession of the Administration are claimed by two or more persons, or the receipt given for the property is not forthcoming, the Administration may withhold delivery of the property or sale proceeds until the person entitled in its opinion to receive it has given an indemnity to the satisfaction of the Administration against the claims of any other person with respect to the property or sale proceeds.

18. (1) The owner or person having charge of any goods which are brought upon a railway for the purpose of being carried thereon, and the consignee of any goods which have been carried on a railway, shall, on the request of any railway servant appointed on this behalf by the Administration, deliver to such servant a declaration in writing, signed by such owner or person, or by such consignee, as the case may be, and containing the true weight, and such a description of the goods as may be sufficient to determine the rate and amount which the Administration is entitled to charge in respect thereof.

(2) If such owner, person or consignee refuses or neglects to deliver such a declaration, and refuses to open the parcel or package containing the goods, in order that their description may be ascertained, the Administration may

(a) in respect of goods which have been brought for the purpose of being carried on the railway, refuse to carry the goods, unless in respect thereof a rate is paid not exceeding the highest rate which may be in force at the time on the railway for any class of goods, and when there are no facilities for weighing, upon the weight as estimated by the railway servants aforesaid; or,

(b) in respect of goods which have been carried on the railway, charge a rate not exceeding such highest rate, and when there are no facilities for weighing, upon the weight as estimated by the railway servants aforesaid.

(3) If the weight of goods is materially understated, the Administration shall be entitled to charge on double the difference between the weight as stated and the actual weight.

(4) If а declaration delivered under sub-section (1) is materially false with respect to the description of any goods to which it purports to relate, and which have been carried on the railway, the Administration may charge in respect of the carriage of the goods a rate not exceeding double the highest rate which may be in force at the time on the railway for any class of goods.

(5) If any difference arises between a railway servant and the owner or person having charge or the consignee of any goods which have been brought to be carried, or have been carried on the railway, respecting the description or weight of goods, of which a declaration has been delivered under this section, the railway servant may detain and examine the goods.

(6) If it appears from the examination or weighing that the description or weight of the goods is different from that stated in the declaration delivered under sub-section (1), the person who delivered the declaration, or if that person is not the owner of the goods, then that person and the owner jointly and severally, shall be liable to pay to the Administration the cost of the detention and examination of the goods, and the Administration shall be exonerated from all responsibility for any loss which may have been caused by the detention or examination thereof.

19. (1) No person shall be entitled to take with him or to require the Administration to carry loaded firearms or any dangerous or offensive property upon a railway, or property so bulky that it would be unsafe for the railway to convey the

same.

(2) No person shall take any such property with him upon a railway without giving notice of its nature to the stationmaster or other railway servant in charge of the place where he brings the property upon the railway, or shall tender or deliver any such property for carriage upon a railway without distinctly marking its nature on the outside of the package containing it, or otherwise giving notice in writing of its nature to the railway servant to whom he tenders or delivers it.

(3) Any railway servant may refuse to receive such property for carriage, and when such property has been so received, without

such notice as is mentioned in sub-section (2) having to his knowledge been given, may refuse to carry it or may stop its transit.

(4) If any railway servant has reason to believe any such goods to be contained in a package, with respect to the contents whereof such notice as is mentioned in sub-section (2) has not to his knowledge been given, he may cause the package to be opened for the purpose of ascertaining its contents.

(5) Nothing in this section shall be construed to derogate from Law No. 27 of 1896 (i.e., the Explosives Law), or any law amending the same, or any rules made thereunder, and nothing in sub-sections (1), (3) and (4) shall be construed to apply to any property tendered or delivered for carriage by order or on behalf of the Government or to any property which an officer, soldier or member of a police force, or a person enrolled as a volunteer under Ordinance No. 33 of 1902, may take with him upon a railway in the course of his employment or duty as such.

LIABILITY OF ADMINISTRATION AS CARRIERS OF PROPERTY.

33. (1) Unless the consignor accompanies the property and retains control thereof, the Administration carrying property is liable therefor, from the time it accepts such property until it releases itself from liability by delivery of the property to the consignee, or by placing the same in a warehouse pursuant to § 16, for the loss or injury thereof, from any cause whatsoever, except

(a) an inherent defect, vice or weakness, or some action of the property itself;

(b) the act of God;

(c) accident or inevitable casualty;

(d) the act of the King's enemies or other inevitable superior force;

(e) the act of the law.

(2) The Administration is liable even in the cases excepted by sub-section (1), if its negligence exposes the property to the cause of the loss.

(3) The Administration is liable for delay only when it is caused by its want of ordinary care and diligence.

34. (1) A consignor or consignee, by accepting a receipt or written contract for carriage, assents to the rate of carriage and the time, place and manner of conveyance and delivery therein stated.

(2) Subject to sub-section (1), the liabilities and obligations of the Administration cannot be limited by general notice, but may be limited by special contract.

35. (1) The liability of the Administration under § 33 for the loss, destruction or deterioration of animals delivered to it, to be carried on a railway, shall not in any case exceed the amounts mentioned in the second schedule hereto annexed, unless the person sending or delivering them to the Administration caused them to be declared or declared them at the time of their delivery for carriage by the railway to be respectively of higher value than the amounts set out in the said schedule.

(2) Where such higher value has been declared, the Administration may charge in respect of the increased risk a percentage on the excess of value so declared over the respective sums mentioned in the schedule aforesaid.

(3) In every proceeding against the Administration for the recovery of compensation for the loss, destruction, or deterioration of any animal, the burden of proving the value of the animal, and where the animal has been injured, the extent of the injury, shall lie upon the person claiming the compensation.

36. (1) When any of the articles mentioned in the third schedule hereto annexed are contained in any parcel or package delivered to the Administration for carriage by railway, and the value of the articles in the parcel or package is £10 or more, the Administration shall not be responsible for the loss, destruction or deterioration of the parcel or package, unless the person sending or delivering the parcel or package to the Administration caused its value and contents to be declared, or declared them at the time of the delivery of the parcel or package for carriage by railway, and if so required by the Administration. paid or engaged to pay a percentage upon the excess of the value so declared over the sum aforesaid, by way of compensation for the increased risk.

(2) When any package or parcel of which the value has been declared under sub-section (1) has been lost or destroyed, or has deteriorated, the compensation recoverable in respect of such loss,

destruction or deterioration shall not exceed the value so declared, and the burden of proving the value so declared to have been the true value shall, notwithstanding anything in the declaration, lie on the person claiming the compensation.

(3) The Administration may make it a condition of carrying a parcel, declared to contain any article mentioned in the fifth schedule, that a railway servant authorised in this behalf has been satisfied by examination or otherwise that the parcel actually contains the article declared to be therein.

37. In any action against the Administration for compensation for loss, destruction or deterioration of property delivered to it for carriage by railway, it shall not be necessary for the plaintiff to prove how the loss, destruction or deterioration was caused.

38. When property is carried over any line of the Administration as part only of the journey for which it is despatched and is lost, destroyed or deteriorated, the Administration shall be exonerated from liability for such destruction or deterioration, if it gives satisfactory proof that such loss, destruction or deterioration did not occur whilst the property was in charge of the Administration.

39. A person shall not be entitled to a refund of an overcharge in respect of property carried by railway, or to compensation for the loss, destruction or deterioration of property delivered to be so carried, unless his claim to the refund or compensation with full detailed information with reference thereto has been preferred in writing by him or on his behalf to the Administration within four months from the date of the delivery of the property for carriage by railway.

40. Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Ordinance, the Administration shall not be responsible for the loss, destruction or deterioration of any goods with respect to the description of which a declaration materially false has been delivered under sub-section (1) of § 18, or in respect of which a wrong or improper or insufficient address for delivery has been given, if the loss, destruction or deterioration is in any way brought about by the false declaration, or by giving a wrong or