History of the Office
The British Government in establishing the convict settlement at Botany Bay was little concerned with such administrative details as who would be responsible for the records of the colony. Not even a secretary was appointed for Governor Phillip, far less a registrar, and this lack of an official keeper of the records was not corrected until Frederick Goulburn reached Sydney in 1820 with a commission as 'Secretary and Registrar of the Records'.
Yet the Governor was responsible for almost all aspects of the inhabitants' lives and these activities had to be recorded. Phillip and his successors regulated the supply of rations, they granted lands, they allotted convicts to those who could employ them. They gave assistance to settlers and established Government stores. They fixed the prices of commodities, the rates of wages, and the hours of labour. They imposed tolls and duties. They gave and withdrew licences to trade. They established and controlled markets. They checked the weights and measures, struck a currency and fixed the rate of interest. They mustered the population periodically and published orders which forbade the holding of seditious meetings. They caused the different courts to be assembled, they examined and modified the penalties which the courts imposed. They made provision for the maintenance of order. (1)
These activities were carried out through the Governor's senior officers: the Deputy Judge Advocate; the Commissary; the Principal Surgeon; the Chaplain; the Surveyor General; the Principal Superintendent of Convicts; the commander of the forces and the senior naval officer; and most particularly the Governor's Secretary.
Hence Phillip, lacking a secretary on the establishment when he arrived in Botany Bay, soon felt the want of a close and confidential subordinate who could relieve him of some of the details of administration. Needing a man of integrity, Phillip appointed the Commissary Andrew Miller to do the extra duty. It was one of the first of many dual appointments that troubled the colony for years, for want of enough available talent. But the Commissary had work enough to do of his own and in mid-June 1788, after less than five months, Miller returned to full-time duty at the Commissariat. Phillip then appointed David Collins, the Deputy Judge Advocate in his place. (2)
Collins, an officer of marines, was wisely chosen and his outstanding personal qualities were important in establishing the role and function of the Secretary to the Governor, or Secretary to the Colony as the position was sometimes called. For the next eight years, quietly and efficiently, he was the indispensable aide to the officer administering the Government of New South Wales. He kept apart from the local factions and he earned the confidence of Phillip and his successors. Even as early as November 1788 Major Ross was complaining to Under Secretary Nepean that the Governor 'communicates nothing to any person here but to his secretary', (3) and it is perhaps indicative of the importance already attaching to the position that Ross spoke of Captain Collins as Secretary, not as Judge Advocate.
Collins left Sydney in September 1796 and it was one of Hunter's misfortunes that there was none to take his place as Secretary. For twenty-one months Hunter was his own secretary, aided by unreliable clerks. The post remained vacant until Richard Dore, the first legal man to settle in the colony, arrived in May 1798 as the new Judge Advocate.
Dore immediately solicited appointment to the 'confidential situation' of Secretary. Hunter agreed, with some reluctance, and appointed Dore Secretary under his order of 22 June 1798. The new Secretary, however, tampered with the despatch reporting his appointment in order to give a favourable account of himself to the Secretary of State, and his subsequent behaviour was in keeping with this action. (4)
Thus for the first time, serious differences arose between the Governor and the Secretary. In this instance trouble arose from Dore's perverseness and what Hunter called his 'improper innovations' and his determination 'to be govern'd by his own views and interests in the line of his profession, and to follow, or rather to establish, such rules as best suited those objects'. Dore was a sick man, but certainly as Hunter complained, those objects 'ill-accorded with his situation here, either as an officer on public service, paid by the Crown, or the confidential situation in which he stood with me'. (5)
Hunter had no authority to dismiss Dore as his only legal officer but he could dismiss him as Secretary, and did so, on 23 January 1799. He thereafter again managed the affairs of the colony without a secretary. Governor King, however, on taking office in September of the following year had had ample opportunity to perceive his predecessor's difficulties: he immediately appointed to act as his Aide-de-Camp and Secretary Neil McKellar, a subaltern and acting adjutant of the New South Wales Corps. (6)
McKellar seems to have brought some order back into the secretarial administration, but his other duties called and in April 1801 he was succeeded by William Neate Chapman, another of King's Norfolk Island officers, and a loyal family friend.
When Chapman went home on leave in March 1804 King was at a loss for someone to appoint, but with Hunter's experience still in mind he was determined not to do without a secretary emphasizing that 'it is impossible for the official Duty being dispensed with'. He described the duties of the Secretary thus:
'Secretary - Has the custody of all official papers and records belonging to the colony; transcribes the public despatches; charged with making out all grants, leases, and other public Colonial instruments; also the care of numerous indents or lists sent with convicts of their terms of conviction, and every other official transaction relating to the colony and Government; and is a situation of much responsibility and confidence.' (7)
and further expanded on his own duties at the time:
'Governor - As chief magistrate of the colony and Commander-in-Chief, he has the direction and the superintending control of every act and person — civil, military, settlers, and convicts — under his government, in executing which, he has to attend to the duty of every civil officer. His attention must be particularly directed to regulating and controlling the occasional expences of the colony, investigating and deciding on appeals in civil causes; and from the peculiar nature of this colony, a constant attention is required of him to keep the prisoners in order, attend to wants of all descriptions, fixing settlers, alloting lands, and the personal inspection of every species of public work going forward in the colony, added to which, he has every responsibility and care attached to him of the settlements at Norfolk Island, and now the addition of Lieut't-Governor Collins's Government — all which, and his correspondence with the different departments of Government, occasions the most arduous exertions of the mind.' (8)
King therefore appointed Garnham Blaxcell, formerly acting purser in H.M.S. 'Buffalo' and latterly, like Chapman, a deputy commissary, acting Secretary in April 1804 and he remained in office until his appointment lapsed with Governor Bligh's assumption of command in August 1806.
With King's departure from office a new precedent was set in the appointment of a secretary. For the first time, a governor brought to the colony with him his own secretary and thus was able to make himself independent of whatever local talent might become available for that duty. Bligh may well have blessed the foresight that led him to bring Edmund Griffin with him as Secretary, as he was served faithfully in very trying circumstances.
The Governor frequently consulted Griffin on public affairs and apparently valued his advice. His influence as well as the importance of his position was apparent: the rebels, once Bligh was safely under arrest, lost no time in seizing him and subjecting him to a rigorous examination in their attempt to extract suitable evidence against Bligh, though with relatively little success. Griffin remained with Bligh at Government House, still serving and recognized as his Secretary, although he no longer had access to the Secretary's office or to the official papers. He went with Bligh to the Derwent and later with him to England.
Major Johnston, in wresting the government from Bligh, clearly appreciated the importance of a secretary of his own persuasion, who was deeply enough implicated to remain reliable. He appointed Nicholas Bayly to the position the day after Bligh's overthrow. (9)
Bayly, as secretary to the self-styled lieutenant-governor, wrote much of the correspondence with the deposed Governor, and, as Secretary and one of the inner conclave, he was deeply involved in the general maladministration of the regime. Under the completely new administration, however, John Macarthur, the dominant figure of the rebellion, had no official position. Johnston needed in his own interests to give some semblance of legality to their relationship, or, as he put it, 'finding I should require the aid of some Gentleman in whose integrity I should have confidence, I requested Mr McArthur to assist me', and accordingly, 'As there was no Office vacant to which I could appoint him, and as it was necessary he should have some public character, I created an Office which has never before existed here, and I appointed him Secretary to the Colony.' (01)
The designation 'Secretary to the Colony' had been used before, if without official sanction, but now, for the first time, there were two distinct secretarial offices, in effect one private and one public, side by side.
Foveaux, when he arrived to take command on 28 July, brushed the whole secretarial structure aside and appointed as Secretary Lieutenant James Finucane of the New South Wales Corps, with the usual instruction that all correspondence on public business was to be addressed to him.
Paterson, the next commander in the interregnum, assumed office as Lieutenant Governor on 9 January 1809 and on that day appointed as Secretary Alexander Riley. Riley thus became the first person to hold important office after Bligh's downfall who had not been an officer of the New South Wales Corps or one of its close associates in Sydney. Riley had arrived as a free settler in 1804 and became storekeeper and subsequently acting deputy commissary at Port Dalrymple. His post as Secretary was of doubtful advantage to Riley's mercantile ambitions and he resigned in March. Finucane was therefore reappointed and stayed in office until December 1809. (11)
All together, ten different men served as Secretary to the Governor, or to the colony, or 'to Government', in the twenty-two years before Governor Macquarie arrived with an average tenure of office of less than two years, allowing for vacancies. The arrangements were not conducive to good recordkeeping.
The arrival of Governor Macquarie at the end of 1809 brought to the office of Secretary to the Governor probably the ablest and most experienced man who had yet filled it, one who was to hold it for the longest period, and who, as its last occupant under the old style, was to be the link between the older casual system of court appointments and the new method of permanent appointment by commission from the Crown. In his eleven years of office, the methodical John Thomas Campbell greatly improved the situation in respect of the public records of the colony, and the greater part of the early records surviving are from this period.
Macquarie, assisted by Campbell, set about restoring order in the colony and regulating the manner in which the public business would be conducted. The Governor issued a General Order stating that petitions and memorials would only be received on the first Monday of each month, those for land and cattle on the first Monday in June, and those from convicts for indulgences on the first Monday in December.
'9. His Excellency will receive the Civil and Military Officers of Government on Business each Day in the Week (Sunday excepted) between the hours of Ten and Twelve in the forenoon; and no Letters of Business are to be sent to His Excellency on Sundays, nor out of the hours he has assigned to Public Duties on the other Days of the Week; nor are any Letters of Business to be sent to His Excellency's Secretary but during his Office hours, and on Week Days. Letters, sent either to His Excellency or his Secretary contrary to these orders (unless on occasion of real necessity and pressing Emergency), will be returned unanswered to the Persons who wrote them. His Excellency's Hours for the Despatch of Public Business are from Ten in the forenoon to Three in the Afternoon; and his Secretary's hours are the same'. (12)
Generally, a new order and regularity was established in the performance of the public business during the twelve years of Macquarie's administration. He was succeeded by Sir Thomas Brisbane on 1 December 1821.
Frederick Goulburn succeeded Campbell, taking office as Secretary and Registrar of the Records on 1 February 1821. He was the first such officer officially called Colonial Secretary and was appointed by a Commission dated 13 June 1820. (13) He also held the position of Private Secretary to the Governor. Although this represented a change in the method of appointment and title of the office his commission did not detail his duties, which in fact were the same as those of his predecessor. For a while the relationship between Governor Brisbane and Goulburn was extremely cordial but quarrels developed over the extent of the latter's duties. Brisbane accused Goulburn of acting contrary to his express instructions, withholding correspondence and information from him and exceeding his authority. (14) In May 1824 Major Ovens was officially appointed Brisbane's Private Secretary although he had in fact been acting in this capacity since the middle of 1823. Thus the two offices were separated. (15) Many of the records prior to the establishment of the separate office were retained by the Colonial Secretary and hence appear here. Others were transferred at the end of 1825. (16)
Prior to 1823 all inwards correspondence for the Governor was addressed to the Governor, although filed in the office of the Secretary to the Governor and, after 1821, that of the Colonial Secretary. In 1823 a notice appeared in the Sydney Gazette directing that letters and memorials intended for the Governor were to be addressed to the Colonial Secretary. (17) Although Brisbane had intended this order to refer only to applications for land grants, he did not wish, at that time, to risk alienating his most essential administrative official by repealing the notice. (18) The following year Goulburn maintained that he was the only channel through which the Governor could give directions to the various members of the civil establishment, documents not passing through his Office being 'informal'. (19) This claim led to the final breach between the two men. (20) Brisbane was recalled and left the colony late in November 1825. Goulburn was relieved of the position of Colonial Secretary but continued to serve in that capacity until 7 January 1826.
The basis of the dispute between the Governor and the Colonial Secretary had been the lack of an authoritative statement as to their relative positions. This was largely remedied in 1825 when Darling was given additional instructions on this matter:
'... in addition to those functions which under your general Instructions are specially committed to the Colonial Secretary, he is to conduct, under your direction, all Official Correspondence in the Colony, and is to act on all occasions as the general medium of Communication, through which your orders are to be signified either to the community at large, or to private persons.' (21)
The duties of the various Government offices were revised by Governor Darling and notified in a Government and General Order dated 5 January 1826. This also ordered that
'12th. The Public Correspondence in the Colony is to be carried on generally through the medium of the Colonial Secretary. The Heads of Departments and Commandants of Stations (except when the subject relates to the Military Branch of the Service) will address their Applications and Reports to that Officer for the information or decision of the Governor'. (22)
Previous to this the Governor must still have received many papers direct as the Memorandum of papers handed over at the end of 1825 shows. (16)
Further instructions changing the channels of communication in the colony were given by Darling in a Government Order dated 1 September 1829. Persons having:
'Occasion to make any Application upon Subjects relating to any particular Department' were to 'address themselves in the first instance to the Head of that Department, who in all Matters of unquestionable regulation, will at once afford such information as may be required. In Cases where it may be necessary to bring the Subject under the Consideration of the Governor, the Head of the Department will forward the Application with every necessary Information, accompanied by his own remarks to the Colonial Secretary'. (23)
For the following requests the persons to be addressed were set out specifically:
'Land - To The Colonial Secretary, where the Object is to obtain a Grant or Permission to purchase or rent; and to the Surveyor-General in all other cases. ...
Respecting Roads - To the Surveyor of Roads and Bridges. On the subject of Provisions and other Ordinary Supplies, to the Deputy Commissary General.
Relating to the Revenue - To the Collector of Customs, or the Collector of the Internal Revenue.
To the Marine - To the Superintendent of Government Vessels.
To the Police - The Police Magistrates, or Benches in the Respective Districts.
To Convicts - To the Principal Superintendent of Convicts.
On Legal Matters - To the Crown Lawyers.
And relative to Accounts - To the Auditor General.'
A 'List of Periodical Returns required to be furnished by the various Departments of the Government' dated about 1831 (watermark 1829) gives some indication of the amount of information the Colonial Secretary required from government offices at that time and the amount of detail that may be found in his records.
After responsible government in 1856 the Colonial Secretary (at times known as the Principal Secretary, or Chief Secretary) frequently acted as Premier or Prime Minister prior to the establishment of the Premier's Department in 1907. During the nineteenth century the Colonial Secretary's Department continued to be the most important administrative unit in New South Wales. It had dealings with other public offices on nearly all major developments and activities, as well as having responsibility for a wide and varied range of functions.
The diversity of the functions and duties of the Colonial Secretary are clearly shown in the administrative arrangements published in the New South Wales Government Gazette, No. 155, of 9 October 1856 whereby the Colonial Secretary was charged with the business connected to: legislative matters; naval and military establishments, including the Volunteer Corps; foreign correspondence; postal arrangements and contracts; immigration; Police, including Petty Sessions; gaols and penal establishments; medical establishments, including quarantine, vaccination and lunatic asylums; registration and statistics; municipal institutions; Government printing; proclamations, commissions, and other instruments under the Great Seal; naturalization of aliens; ecclesiastical establishments; public education; literary and scientific institutions; hospitals and charitable institutions; Aborigines; remission and execution of sentences; and 'all other matters of internal arrangement not confided to any other Minister'.
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.
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