Colonial Secretary Guide - Flipbook - Page 20
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- 19 Minutes and memoranda and the Colonial Secretary's registered correspondence were linked together as
administrative convenience dictated throughout the entire period under review, and to find a particular
letter or minute it is often necessary to consult both registers of letters received and registers of minutes
and memoranda (see Appendix D pp.63-69).
By 1840, the growth of inwards correspondence allied with the imperfections of a system arranged by
subject and/or by source meant that searches for papers became more laborious and time-consuming and
the deficiencies in indexing procedure became more noticeable. At the end of 1842 the first tentative steps
towards providing a summary of the contents of some inter-departmental letters were taken, and the
following year this became uniform.
By the end of 1849 it must have become obvious that most papers would be found more directly from an
index and register than by a direct reference to the records themselves. The following year the system
was changed, the inwards correspondence being arranged hence primarily in annual single number order
within each year. The system of creating "special bundles" (ie. by subject) was, however, retained with
papers relating to matters of continuing interest, or papers referred to at regular intervals, being placed
together. In most cases the connections between papers placed together in "special bundles" were not
noted in the relevant registers.
Prior to responsible government papers to be tabled before the Executive Council were transmitted to the
Clerk of the Council by the Colonial Secretary, who in turn had received them from the appropriate
department or government official. Before 1846 all documents tabled were copied up in full in
Appendices to Minutes but the labour involved (in some cases, up to thirty documents - in addition to
annexures to some of these documents - had to be copied up for one paragraph of one minute) led to the
supercession of this series by Registers of papers laid before the Executive Council. Before 1856 all papers
for the Council were transmitted through the Colonial Secretary, and only the Colonial Secretary's inletter registration numbers of documents tabled and returned to the Colonial Secretary were entered in
this register.
From 1856 the several ministerial departments (Colonial Secretary, Treasury, Lands and Works, etc.)
handled the preparation of Minutes for the Executive Council, minute papers being sent direct to the
Clerk of the Council; and after this date the in-letter registration numbers shown in the Registers of
papers tabled are those of the respective ministerial departments.
The 'blank cover" system of correspondence became a widely used method of expediting interdepartmental correspondence. The system involved the passing on of a letter received by one department
to another department for a report on a matter raised therein. This method saved the need to make a
copy of the original letter and the writing of a covering letter - hence "blank cover". Such "blank cover"
letters, for example, if sent by the Colonial Secretary to the Surveyor General would first be entered in the
Colonial Secretary's register of blank cover letters sent, being given a "blank cover" annual single number.
The original letter, minuted "the Surveyor General is requested to report" would be forwarded to the
Surveyor General with the lower right hand corner turned up for the required report to be written
thereon. Upon receipt by the Survey Department the letter would be registered in the register of blank
covers received from the Colonial Secretary, the Surveyor General's report would be written on the
upturned corner of the letter or on the verso if the report was a long one. A copy of the Colonial
Secretary's minute requesting the report, and a copy of the Surveyor General's report in reply would be
inserted in the blank cover letter book. The Surveyor General assigned his own annual single number to
his replies to the Colonial Secretary's blank covers, which were recorded in the letter book (39).
In 1907 the Colonial Secretary's Department adopted an index-register system. At the beginning of the
year blocks of numbers were assigned to letters which the department expected to receive concerning a
particular subject, or from a department or private person. Thus, for example, the Colonial Secretary
would allocate a block of registration numbers, say 6000-6700, for leave applications from staff. Should
the number of leave applications exceed the pre-assigned "quota" or allotment further numbers would be
assigned from those allocated to a department or subject where less correspondence had been received
than had been expected.
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