Guide 3 to NSW State Archives relating to Responsible Government - OCR - Flipbook - Page 123
A Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Responsible Government
• M20731: cancellation of Sydney as a polling place for the
Electoral Districts within the County of Cumberland
• M20732, M20778, M20784: appointment and cancellation of
polling places
• M20742: statement of overtime performed in connection with
the return for the Senate in the Federal election.
• M20783: appointment of additional polling places in connection
with the election of Queensland members to serve in the House
of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Box [5/6651] includes the following Minutes which relate to
electoral matters:
• M20785: cancellation of polling places in certain electorates
• M20786: appointment and cancellation of polling places (large
bundle with many enclosures)
• M20791: overtime in connection with the Federal Election.
Public Service Board
Special bundles — Inquiry into the working of the Electoral
Office and the Electoral Acts, 1904
CGS 12294,
[8/342-347.1]
On behalf of the Government, the Public Service Board undertook
an inquiry or investigation, under section 9 of the Public Service
Act, 1902, into the general working of the Electoral Office and into
the defects, if any, of the Electoral Acts. The inquiry, which
commenced on 19 September 1904, was brought about by the
publication in The Evening News of 13 August 1904 of a letter
urging a thorough reformation of the method of the Electoral
Office in the administration of the Electoral Acts. The letter alleged
that at the recent general election: electors were deprived of their
electors' rights; electors were prevented from recording their votes
through their names not being on the rolls; and that electors'
rights were issued to persons already in possession of them or to
persons who had no claim whatever to the franchise. Following the
gathering of information from Returning Officers, the Police, and
from overseas and interstate, as well as though the examination of
various witnesses, the Board in its report made a number of
recommendations for amendment of the electoral system.
Included are correspondence, including offers to give evidence;
copy of questions (40 in all) in regard to electoral law and
administration; replies to questionnaires with suggestions from
Returning Officers, Electoral Registrars and the Police; replies from
overseas and interstate Governments about their electoral systems
with supporting documentation; copies of electoral legislation;
newspapers cuttings 9 August-8 November 1904; exhibits;
minutes of evidence; an index to witnesses, and the final report of
the Board, ordered to be printed by the Legislative Assembly on
20 December 1904. There are also papers relating to the cost of
the 1904 General Election with summaries of expenses and returns
for individual electorates.
State Records Authority of New South Wales
121
