The letter books contain manuscript copies or summaries, with some printed or typescript copies, of all letters and telegrams sent by the Colonial Secretary's office. Regular series of books exist from the arrival of Governor Macquarie, with two earlier books of Lieutenant Governors Foveaux and Paterson. Despatches sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies are listed with the records of the Governor.

Many of the letters books dated after the 1850's are not in the custody of State Records. They are believed to have been destroyed.

The earliest letter books form two series. Letters to persons around Sydney and overseas are together (NRS 935), as are letters to the distant settlements, Newcastle, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land (NRS 936). In 1814 these divisions were recast and all letters sent to persons within the Colony including its 'dependencies' were together in one series (NRS 937) while letters to 'foreign' parts, including England and other colonies were in another (NRS 938).

Separate books were opened for letters to Port Macquarie (NRS 992) in June 1822, Melville Island (NRS 981) and Moreton Bay (NRS 983) in August 1824, and Norfolk Island (NRS 988) in May 1825.

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. The letters were now copied into 26 books. A Report on the Establishment of the Colonial Secretary's Office sent to London with despatch No. 110 dated 27 October 1827, has an appendix, dated 3 September 1827, setting out the new system (Despatches from the Governor of NSW - Enclosures etc, 1827-29, Mitchell Library [A1267-11 pp.451-66]). Columns A and B are from that report, while column C shows the earliest extant date today, and column D the present Concise Guide series number.

A	B	C	D
Title of Book	Persons addressed	Date commenced	NRS no.
Boards & Circulars	Boards Circulars	5.1.1827	947
Clerical	Archdeacon Clergymen of the Church of England, Church of Scotland, Catholic &c. Church Corporation	6.10.1826	950
Commissariat	Deputy Commissary General Commissary of Accounts All others in Commissariat	6.10.1826	955
Customs &c.	Collector & Comptroller Surveyor of Distilleries Wharfingers and all others in the Customs	3.1.1827	963
Engineer	Civil Engineer Mineral Surveyor, &c.	6.10.1826	995
Establishments	Mr Mackay Mr McLeod Mr Maxwell Mr C. R. Moore Mr Blackett Mr Aird Mr Murray Government Printer Factory Committee Superintendent of Clocks	4.12.1826	970
Foreign	Colonial Agent Colonial Secretary, Van Diemen's Land All others, England, Van Diemen's Land, India &c.	17.1.1814	939
Internal Revenue	Collector	28.4.1827	951
Judicial	Attorney General Judges Chairman of the Quarter Sessions Clerk of the Peace Solicitor General Registrar of the Supreme Court Clerk of the Supreme Court Sheriff Governor of Sydney Gaol Coroners	6.10.1826	976
Land Department	Surveyor General Land Board Commissioners for apportioning the Colony	6.10.1826	1001
Land, Private		2.1.1827	944
Medical	Principal Surgeon All other Medical Officers	4.12.1826	980
Military	Military Secretary Brigade Major Ordnance Sergeant Lieutenant Governor &c.	11.1.1827	982
Miscellaneous		30.1.1827	943
Naval	Master Attendant Navy Officers Colonial Marine	6.10.1826	984
Police	Police Superintendent Military Commandant (Bathurst) Mr Bean Mr Fitzgerald Mr Warner Officers of Mounted Police Magistrates Benches	6.10.1826	989
Superintendent of Convicts		6.10.1826	962
Surveyor of Roads and Bridges	Surveyor Assistant Surveyors	3.4.1827	1002
Treasury & Audit	Auditor Treasurer	9.10.1826	1004
Fort Wellington		19.5.1827	972
King George's Sound		4.11.1826	977
Melville Island		14.8.1824	981
Moreton Bay		27.8.1824	983
Norfolk Island		May 1825	988
Port Essington		19.5.1827	972
Port Macquarie		28.6.1822	992
Western Port		4.11.1826	1007

This sets the pattern for the arrangements which continued until 1856 with changes and additions as the number of letters written to an office and the administrative structure altered.

The divisions adopted do not seem to be watertight but whether this is intentional or accidental is not always clear. In addition to this, letters to the same office may be entered in different volumes during the same period for no apparent reason, but this happens infrequently. On occasions letters have obviously been copied in the wrong books. This has sometimes been detected by the officer and corrected.

However, this system remained basically unaltered until 1915 when it became a casualty of the First World War. The junior clerk responsible for entering and indexing letters sent in the letter-press books* having enlisted for active service abroad, it became necessary to investigate how labour might be saved. The practice had earlier developed of placing a carbon copy of an out-letter with the previous papers, and it was decided that for most purposes access through the registers of in-letters provided adequate means of reference to replies. In a memoranda 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'.

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'.

Registration System

From 1827 all letters are allocated a registration number except those to individuals. In most cases the annual single number system is used within each series but in a few cases in the earlier period where letters to more than one official appear in a series, a classified system is used. These numbers will be found at the top left hand corner of each letter to the right of the margin. It has been noticed that errors have been made in the allocation of numbers, some numbers being omitted, others duplicated.

Notations

There are various notations in the margins of the letters. The following explanation of these notations is taken from the front of the 1826 volume of NRS 955 [4/3645]. It is possible that these explanations do not hold good in later years.

'Explanations of the Nos. inserted in the Margin of the Letters entered in this Book.

5403	The No. in the Register of Letters received during the year 1826.
27/5403	The No. in the Register of Letters received since the year 1826 the upper No. showing the year; the lower No. the letters received during that year.
M.9/1827	Numbered Minute of the Governor, the upper No. showing the Minute; the lower No. the year.
Mem.	Registered Memorandum of the Governor not in his own hand writing.
M.	Memorandum in the Governor's own hand.
M.S.	Manuscript (sometimes verbal) instructions from the Colonial Secretary.
M.Sy.	Memorandum of the Military Secretary.
P.S.	Memorandum of the Private Secretary
C.S.	Memorandum in Mr McLeay's hand writing'.

The method of noting Governor's Minutes altered in later years, the year not being noted, eg. M14,123.

Another notation appears in the margin in later years also. It is '25m' or '25 late'. This probably indicates the date and time of despatch of the original letter.

Indexes

Most of the volumes include an index, usually at the front. Where the letters sent to one office only are copied in a volume, entries are subject or form entries. Where the bulk of the correspondence is with one office but other officers are also addressed, additional entries appear in the index under the name of the 'other offices' addressed but not under the office most frequently addressed. Where letters to a number of offices are copied in a single series, entries appear under both addressee and subject of the letter with form entries (examples of form entries are: Circulars, Minutes). Some of the volumes are not completely indexed.

In some of the volumes, particularly those with the name of many persons as subjects, these personal entries are listed either at the beginning or the end of the initial letter and other subjects listed after or before them.

There is no apparent logic or system in the choice of headings. Surveyor of Distilleries may appear in the one index under the headings:

Surveyor of Distilleries

Distilleries, Surveyor

Bate, Sam (his name)

Sometimes the entry may even be altered to read, for example:

Superintendent of Emu Plains

but be found with the entries under 'K' because when the index was first begun Kinghorne was Superintendent.

These and other anomalies may make reference to the records difficult.

The indexes were usually prepared in a rough form and then copied into the front of the letter books. Occasionally the rough copy has survived also. Sometimes it is the only index.

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* Letter-press copying of out-letters was begun in the Colonial Secretary's Office in 1873, replacing hand copying from drafts.