Colonial Secretary Guide - Flipbook - Page 16
- 15 Up to 1826 the letters received were probably kept in alphabetical sequence by the author of a letter or
petition. No contemporary registration numbers appear on the letters. The surviving lists of memorials
and petitions received are all arranged alphabetically (33) and the papers were probably put away in the
same order with perhaps some division by type of application and year, probably in wooden "pigeon
holes" constructed for this purpose.
There have been several attempts to organize the early papers. The first appears to have taken place
when Alexander Mcleay took office in 1826 - the lists of letters received in 1821 and 1822 are watermarked
1823. Mdeay began the systematic registration of correspondence, and set aside a room, referred to as
"the new Record Office", in the Colonial Secretary's building and had it fitted up with presses containing
pigeon-holes for the files and bundles of papers. (34) The scheme was that all public correspondence from
the very earliest was to be kept on one side of the room, 30 feet in length, while convict records were to be
kept along one end of it, 19 feet in length, and the other records were to be arranged in subject groups
round the other walls.
On 1 October 1857 Edward Smith Hall was appointed as an extra clerk in the Colonial Secretary's Office
to work on the early official papers:
"... which it would be very desirable to have examined and arranged with a view to their
better preservation as documents of public interest and importance." (35)
Already frequent enquiries were received which involved reference to these documents. Hall died on
18 September 1860 and would seem to have been engaged on this work in the interim period. It is not
clear what he actually did. However he may have been responsible for the registration system on the
1824 letters received, as the paper on which the register was written is watermarked 1842. (36) Only the
letters A and B are covered so it was obviously left unfinished.
A major re-arrangement of the early records was undertaken in the Colonial Secretary's Office during
1888-90 for the purpose of facilitating research in connection with the publication of the History of New
South Wales from the Records. The correspondence up to 1826, with a few exceptions, was made up into
bundles. A Summary of Colonial Records in the Colonial Secretary's Office, 1788-1826 (AONSW ref: 5/2331;
microfilm copy AO Reel 6036) was prepared listing each document or group of documents and showing
the date of each, the writer, to whom it was addressed, and a description of its contents. A number was
allocated to each bundle and to each item described. The description varies in detail however, as does the
item described which may be one sheet of paper described with lengthy comments, or a whole bundle of
papers dismissed with the words "Miscellaneous and unimportant correspondence for the year". There is
an index in the front of this Summary*.
The scheme adopted appears to be as follows:
1.
Bundles 1-3, 1788-1809 (AONSW ref: 4/1719-22; microfilm copy AO Reel 6041)
These are in chronological order but there are many gaps.
2.
Bundles 4-14, 1810-1820 (AONSW ref: 4/1723-47; microfilm copy AO Reels 6042-6050)
From Bundle 4 on, there is a bundle for each year. First come the documents which
apparently were considered to be important when they were bundled in 1888-90. They
are in chronological order. When a file contains papers of various dates, it is filed under
the date of the first paper. Papers dated only by year are filed either at the beginning or
the end of the bundle.
The second part of the bundle includes the group called in the Summary, "Unimportant
and miscellaneous" which contains letters from officials and individuals as well as
memorials and petitions. These are in chronological order, undated items being filed at
the end.
* A second copy of the "Summary" made by Watson when editing Historical Records of Australia has also
survived and includes his notes and also a notation of the printing of the various documents in that
publication. This is in two volumes (AONSW ref: 5/2334-35).