Penalties for performing stated service otherwise than through post

(1) Every person who, (a) conveys, otherwise than by post, any letter required by law to be conveyed by post; (b) performs, otherwise than by post, any services incidental to conveying letters from place to place, whether by receiving or by taking up, or by collecting, or by ordering, or 20 by despatching, or carrying or re-carrying, or by delivering a letter required to be conveyed (c) sends, or causes to be sent, a letter required to be conveyed by post, otherwise than by post, or either tenders or delivers a letter so required to be conveyed, in order that it may be sent otherwise than by the post; or (d) makes a collection of excepted letters for the purpose of conveying or sending them otherwise than by post, shall, for every letter, forfeit ten dollars. (2) Every person who is in the practice of, (a) conveying, otherwise than by post, letters required to be conveyed by post; (b) performing, otherwise than by post, any services incidental to conveying letters from place to place, whether by receiving or by taking up, or by collecting or by ordering, or by despatching or by carrying or re-carrying, or by delivering a letter required to be conveyed by post; (c) sending, or causing to be sent, a letter required to be conveyed by post otherwise than by post, or either tendering or delivering a letter so required to be conveyed, in order that it may be sent otherwise than by post; or (d) making a collection of excepted letters for the purpose of conveying or sending them otherwise than by post, 21 shall, for every week during which the practice continues, forfeit one hundred dollars. (3) In this section, “post” includes all post communications by land or by water, except by outward bound vessels, not being post office packets, and the above fines shall be incurred whether the letter is sent singly or with anything else or such incidental service is performed in respect to a letter either sent or to be sent, singly or together with some other letter or thing. (4) In any proceeding for the recovery of any such fines, the onus shall lie upon the party proceeded against to prove that the act in respect of which the fines are alleged to have been incurred was done in conformity with the law.