From 1810 to 1825 separate out-letter books in the Secretary's Office had been kept for letters addressed within the Colony, letters sent outside the Colony, and letters to Military Stations. These out-letter books contained manuscript copies of letters sent; no outwards registration system was adopted. With the reorganization of the Colonial Secretary's inwards correspondence in 1826 there was a corresponding reorganization of the out-letter books along similar lines to the 'pigeon hole' system of keeping correspondence in the Colonial Secretary's press. Copies of all letters sent were entered 'in the 26 books (ie. out-letter books) now kept for the purpose', a process 'so methodical and complete as scarcely to admit of improvement' (37). Indeed, the system remained basically unaltered until 1915 when, like so many other long-established institutions, it became a casualty of the First World War.

The letterbooks were resorted during the 1888-90 rearrangement of the early records previously mentioned. However being bound volumes the order of individual documents was safe from too much interference, and although more specific series have since been recognized there was no difficulty in restoring the proper sequence.

During the nineteenth century a number of technological changes had taken place in the method of making a record of letters sent. Letter-press copying of out-letters was begun in the Colonial Secretary's Office in 1873, replacing manuscript copies from drafts. The introduction of the typewriter led to the creation of carbon copies of letters sent. It did not become normal practice among government departments to attach carbon copies of letters sent to inwards correspondence until about 1906 because if the practice of keeping a letter-press copy of the original letter had been discontinued, the situation would have arisen in which there was no complete record of all letters sent, particularly when the department concerned had originated action. To have registered outwards correspondence together with inwards correspondence would doubtless have aggravated the problem of coping with the registration of the ever-increasing volume of inwards correspondence, the symptoms of which can already be discerned in the different attempts to handle this material. Finally, there was the added convenience that the letter-press copy was made in a book which was already bound and which could be indexed at any time.

The out-letter system was simplified in 1913. The following system was proposed by J B Hagarty, a clerk in the Chief Secretary's Office, and adopted:

'I beg to report that there are no less than 31 separate letter books which are being used in this Branch for copying the Departmental correspondence; and, with a view of improving and simplifying the system at present obtaining, I suggest that the following books be abolished:

Treasury; Justice; Public Works; Lands; Mines; Agriculture; Public Instruction; Miscellaneous book; Police Districts book; Town Clerk (Sydney) book; Medical book; and the Auditor General's book.

If this course were adopted, 10 books would be abolished, and as an alternative, I propose that all letters to the various Ministerial Departments be copied in the one letter book: Police Districts, in the Inspector General of Police's Book; and letters to the Town Clerk, Sydney, to be copied in the book known as the Municipalities Book. Communications addressed to the Auditor General, the Inspector General of the Insane, etc., could, under the new system, be copied in a book to be set apart for letters addressed to Heads of Sub-Departments. The following is a complete list of the books:

The practice had developed of placing a carbon copy of an out-letter with the previous papers, and it was recognized after some years that for most purposes access through the registers of in-letters provided adequate means of reference to replies. In a memorandum 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. I have made enquiries at the Works Department and at the Railways Department (our nearest neighbours) and find that, in the Works Department, only letters on very important subjects are press-copied, whilst in the Railways Department the system of press-copying has been abandoned altogether.' (41)

The junior clerk responsible for entering and indexing letters sent in the letter-press books having enlisted for active service abroad 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 [sent]'.

Later, separate registries were set up in the Chief Secretary's office for a variety of functions, including the State Trawling Industry, the State Fisheries Branch, the Lord Howe Island Board of Control, the Unemployment Relief Council, the Birds and Animals Protection Branch, and the Bush Fires Advisory Committee.

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