Colonial Secretary Guide - Flipbook - Page 15
- 14 In the further administrative arrangements notified by the Governor on 4 October 1859, the Colonial
Secretary was referred to as the "Colonial Secretary or Chief Secretary to the Government". This latter
title was gradually adopted as the title of the office, although an official ministerial title change did not
occur until 1 April 1959 under the Ministers of the Crown Act (No. 4 of 1959). Subsequently, between
3 January 1975 and 23 January 1976 the department was titled the Department of Services; between
23 January and 14 May 1976, the Chief Secretary's Department; and from 14 May 1976 to its abolition in
May 1982, again the Department of Services.
The Letters Received and other Papers, 1788-1826
The surviving records of the office of the Secretary to the Governor (1788-1821) include letters received
and a few drafts of letters sent, and copies of agreements, despatches, out-letters, general orders,
instructions, ordinary regulations, proclamations, memoranda, reports and returns. The original
arrangement has been obscured by several re-arrangements. Few records prior to 1810 survive but the
papers were fairly systematically kept after that time.
Most of the records were written on whatever sheets of paper happened to be available, in widely varying
shapes and sizes. This was typical in a period of chronic shortage of stationery. Two isolated examples
illustrate this: in 1794 Palmer, the Commissary, reported that lack of stationery made it difficult to keep
his accounts (24); twenty-two years later Macquarie told Deputy Commissary General Allan (25) that his
own and the Secretary's office was "much in want of every kind of stationery for the use of the Public
Service" and demanded some from the supply Allan had received in the Elizabeth.
The necessity felt by many early Governors to clear their names as well as the practice of not
distinguishing between official and private documents, common among administrators throughout the
Empire, may have been among the reasons why there are few records dated prior to 1810. Certainly
many were removed contemporaneously.
Bligh is the most prominent example. He was the only Governor to suffer rebellion. Just before his arrest
on 26 January 1808, he himself destroyed some official papers:
"I got together some papers ... which I thought it necessary to take care of," and "tore a
number of them in order to lessen my bundle, which was too large to be concealed under
my waistcoat. I tore a great number of them; and a vast quantity of the pieces were
picked up by John Dunn, my servant, and afterwards burnt." (26)
Other papers fell into the hands of the rebel Government (27).
There is also some suggestion that papers were destroyed by Lieutenant Colonel Johnston to suppress
damaging evidence. (28)
When Lieutenant Governor Paterson arrived he intended to return some papers to Bligh retaining only
those necessary for his administration. (29) Bligh however sailed without receiving the papers from the
Lieutenant Governor, so Paterson gave them to Lieutenant Colonel Johnston to take to England. (3°)
When Macquarie arrived no papers of importance were found:
"The room in Government house in which Governor Bligh's papers were said to be was
sealed on my arrival here. It has since been opened by himself, but no papers of any
importance were found in it, and I understand they were all taken to England by Lieu't
Col. Johnston and Mr McArthur." (31)
In consequence of the practice of removing public records Earl Bathurst issued a circular despatch in 1822
directing that in future all official papers were not only to be "most carefully and methodically" kept but
were to be delivered to the next occupant of the office. (32)