AGY-5313 | Police Fund

Full description

Background
The Police Fund evolved from attempts by Governors prior to Macquarie to raise funds locally to supplement the money received from the British Treasury to maintain the Colony. (1) The Police Fund had its origins in the Gaol and Orphan Fund which began from Revenue raised in the Colony mostly by duties on imports under an order of Governor Hunter. (2) Additional revenue was obtained from charges on the coal and timber trade after the settlement of Newcastle was re-established in 1804. (3) The revenue from these new imports to Sydney was divided into two groups: fees and the King’s dues for orphans.

The orphan fund also received funds from the commissariat. These funds were the net profits derived from the sales of goods shipped by the British Government for barter sale through the public store. (4) The administration of justice also contributed to the Fund with proceeds of liquor licences and the fines levied by the courts. The revenue was used for the payment of a miscellaneous group of colonial expenses including to the erection of a gaol and an orphan school (5) and the salaries of a growing number of minor officials. (6) By 1807 revenue collection had been extended to include fees for auctioneer's licences and ad valorem duty on goods auctioned. (7)

The Police Fund
From the commencement of Governor Macquarie's term of office taxes were levied by duties, market dues, cattle slaughtering dues, duties on spirits distilled in the Colony and by fees for publicans' licences. In a despatch to the Secretary for State for the Colonies on 30 April 1810 Macquarie announced that he had divided "the Money so Collected into two distinct Funds, naming one of them “The Police Fund” and the other “The Orphan Fund.” I have ordered three-fourths of all the Customs and Duties to be appropriated to the Police Fund, and the remaining fourth to the Orphan Fund, each under the Management of distinct Trustees. Out of the former is to be defrayed the Expence of the Jail and Police Establishments, the Erection of Wharves, Quays and Bridges, and the making and repairing of Streets and Roads within the Limits of the Town of Sydney. Out of the latter is to be defrayed the Expence of the Female Orphan School Establishment, and also that of the other Charity Schools intended to be established here and at the other principal Settlements in the Colony". (8) In 1817, Macquarie further increased the strength of the Police Fund by directing that seven-eighths, instead of three-fourths, of the revenue proceeds were to go to the Fund. (9)

Although many of the dues paid into the Police Fund were collected by the Naval Officer the administration of the Fund lay in the hands of its Treasurer, D'Arcy Wentworth, and an honorary board of Trustees. The Police Fund was used for the building and maintenance of watchhouses, wharves, roads and bridges as well as for paying the salaries of certain officials. G.W. Evans was rewarded from the Fund for his discoveries west of the Blue Mountains. (10)

In 1821, Commissioner Bigge recommended that the duty of collection of colonial revenue, its receipt and account should be entrusted to an officer to be named the Colonial Treasurer. In the following year Brisbane demanded a reorganisation of the financial arrangements of the colony and on 31 July 1823 Earl Bathurst noted, "it is recommended that the collection of internal revenue whether for duties on spirits, tolls, licences or otherwise, should be entrusted to an officer to be named the Colonial Treasurer, to whom also the Post Master shall be accountable for the receipts of his office." (11)

William Balcombe was appointed to the position of Colonial Treasurer and in 1824 was ordered to accept monthly receipts of duties from the Surveyor of Distilleries, quarterly receipts of money from Crown Lands from the Surveyor General, and revenue from the Church and School Corporation, of which he was ex officio the Treasurer as well as the Treasurer of the Police Fund. Thus the establishment of the Colonial Treasury in 1823 was the logical extension of the Police Fund and placed the collection of colonial revenue on a more formal footing. (12)

Endnotes
1. Concise Guide to the State Archives of New South Wales q.v. Police Fund.
2. loc. cit.
3. McMartin, Arthur. ‘The payment of officials in early Australia 1786-1826: An essay in administrative history’, in Public Administration: The Journal of the Australian Regional Groups of the Royal Institute of Public Administration, vol.xvii, no.1, March 1958, p.63.
4. loc. cit.
5. Concise Guide to the State Archives of New South Wales q.v. Police Fund.
6. McMartin, Arthur. ‘The payment of officials in early Australia 1786-1826: An essay in administrative history’, in Public Administration: The Journal of the Australian Regional Groups of the Royal Institute of Public Administration, vol.xvii, no.1, March 1958, pp.63-64.
7. Concise Guide to the State Archives of New South Wales q.v. Police Fund.
8. Historical Records of Australia, Series I, Vol. VII, p.254.
9. McMartin, Arthur. ‘The Treasury in New South Wales, 1786-1836’, in Public Administration: The Journal of the Australian Regional Groups of the Royal Institute of Public Administration, vol.xvii, No.3, September 1958, p.217.
10. Concise Guide to the State Archives of New South Wales q.v. Police Fund.
11. loc. cit.
12. loc. cit.