NRS-18860 | Minutes [Municipality of South Grafton]

Full description

This series consists of minutes of the General or Ordinary meetings and the Special or Extraordinary meetings of the South Grafton Municipal Council. These minute books were created under s.107 and 108 of the Municipalities Act of 1867 (31 Vic. No.12) which was assented to on 23 December 1867, and subsequent legislation.

The General meetings were called for Ordinary business and were recurrent meetings prescribed by legislation to be held at regular intervals. Special meetings could be called for Extraordinary business by the mayor or by two councillors and dealt with a specific issue. Reports were generally also tabled at these meetings as well as at the general meeting relating to the subject.

The minutes document the decisions made by the council at its meetings. The minutes usually include the following sections: attendance of council members, confirmation of minutes of the previous meeting, business arising out of the minutes of the previous meeting, mayor's or Official minutes (which brought to council's attention significant matters within its jurisdiction or of which it had official knowledge), recommendations from council committees, reports by council officers, outward and inward correspondence, petitions, questions with notice, orders of the day or general business, and questions without notice. At the end of the year the mayor compiled a report summarising council activities for the previous twelve months.

To ease the work load at General meetings, the council could delegate powers to committees composed of councillors. The committee's recommendations were submitted to the next council meeting and form part of that meeting's minutes. However the recommendations were not binding unless, and until, adopted by council.

In order to discuss confidential business, council could form itself into the Committee of the Whole during a meeting. A Committee of the Whole was not required to make its business public through the minutes, only its recommendations.

The minutes of each meeting of council were confirmed at the following meeting and signed by the mayor, and later the mayor and clerk, to guarantee that they were a true and accurate record.

Minutes for the early years of the municipality before 1918 are incomplete, being missing from November 1896 to December 1897, June 1900 to January 1904, February 1906 to July 1909, and September 1914 to December 1917. Remaining volumes from this period show water damage.

The minutes are not indexed.