NRS-4232 | Minute books [Executive Council]

Full description

The series contains an almost complete record of the Minutes of the Executive Council from the time of its inception until 2007. The minutes were kept at each meeting by the Clerk of the Council, and read and approved at the subsequent meeting. Minutes make note of members present, and then list, in summary form, each matter requiring Council approval. Early minutes list each matter requiring attention individually. After the start of responsible government in 1856, they gradually begin to be listed by area of government responsibility, and then later in sections under the relevant ministerial portfolio. Matters dealt with include recommendations and approvals for amendments to legislation, issuing of proclamations, making of regulations, orders to be made, and appointments and removals of senior public servants. A note at the end of each meeting's minutes indicates that all items were approved.

Earlier minutes are more detailed, and often contain fuller information about the matters dealt with by Council. Some very early minutes also record reasons members disagreed with Council decisions, although it was not normal to record opinions expressed by individual members of the Council. By the 1870s the minutes have become shorter and conform to a more standard format. The brief summary listings of matters approved had become established by 1900. From 1825 through to 1918 the minutes were handwritten straight into the volumes. From 1919 onward they were typed and bound at a later date. The early volumes of minutes also contain a few isolated letters and minute papers which appear to have been left within a particular volume when it was used.

In addition to the minutes, from 1825 to 1848, appendices were kept into which minute papers were copied (these are held in series NRS 4234 Appendices to Minutes). From 1846, 'Record Books' were kept, which list minute papers laid before the Council, and give details which, in many cases, enable the relevant papers to be located in the records of the department from which they originated (NRS 4235 Registers of minute papers laid before the Executive Council).

Each meeting in the minute books is numbered individually, with the number sequence re-starting at the beginning of each year (from 1828 onwards). From 1847 until mid-1922 separate matters tabled within each Council meeting are identified by a letter of the alphabet, each letter also indicating the corresponding minute papers copied in NRS 4234 Appendices to Minutes. Prior to the introduction of this system, notations (such as 'Appendix') in the margin alongside a particular minute, or the date the minute paper was copied up, indicated that the relevant minute papers may be found in NRS 4234.

From 1852 until 1929, and from 1937 to 1948, there are handwritten indexes in the front of each volume of minutes, arranged by subject or provenance, with the relevant page of the volume as the locator. Early indexes are quite detailed, but they become progressively less so over time, with the later indexes being only lists of relevant minutes under the name of each Government department, located by meeting number, date and page number within the volume. Although no indexes seem to have been created after 1948, blank index pages at the front of volumes persist sporadically until 1967.