Colonial Secretary Guide - Flipbook - Page 318
- 316 A
Title of Book
C
Date commenced
D
Series number
Fort Wellington
19.5.1827
40
King George's
Sound
4.11.1826
45
Melville Island
14.8.1824
49
Moreton Bay
27.8.1824
51
Norfolk Island
May 1825
56
Port Essington
19.5.1827
40
Port Macquarie
28.6.1822
60
Western Port
4.11.1826
75
Persons addressed
This sets the pattern for the arrangements which continued until 1856 with changes and additions as the
number of letters written to an office and the administrative structure altered.
The divisions adopted do not seem to be watertight but whether this is intentional or accidental is not
always clear. In addition to this, letters to the same office may be entered in different volumes during the
same period for no apparent reason, but this happens infrequently. On occasions letters have obviously
been copied in the wrong books. This has sometimes been detected by the officer and corrected.
However, this system remained basically unaltered until 1915 when it became a casualty of the First
World War. The junior clerk responsible for entering and indexing letters sent in the *letter-press books
having enlisted for active service abroad, it became necessary to investigate how labour might be saved.
The practice had earlier developed of placing a carbon copy of an out-letter with the previous papers, and
it was decided that for most purposes access through the registers of in-letters provided adequate means
of reference to replies. In a memoranda from H. Deering (Chief Clerk) to the Under Secretary of the
Colonial Secretary's Department, dated 6 September 1915 it is stated:
"A great saving of time and labour, however, would be effected if the Under Secretary
were to agree to the discontinuance of the present practice of the press-copying and
indexing ... of practically every typewritten letter in the office ... There is always the
carbon copy with the papers to refer to".
The Under-Secretary agreed that "only letters of importance (were) to be copied in future - officers will be
held responsible for placing with files carbon copies of all letters".
Letter-press copying of out-letters was begun in the Colonial Secretary's Office in 1873, replacing
hand copying from drafts.
