nature of
the
business transacted-
as it is that which must determine
the expediency of
expenditure.
5. There are
the
proposed
of course two methods
of doing business, whatever may be
its amount. First the various records
may
be put en masse
into drawers
and
pigeon holes without an
Index
to
find
them by,
and the Despatches
may
be unentered and in a ward
the important duty of Keeping the
Public Archives in a convenient
accessible
and safe
manner may
be
either wholly neglected or imperfectly
discharged. Or secondly they may
be dealt with
as
in
properly
a
324
conducted Offices at home and most
other Colonies.
la.
It
appears
to
me
that
any
necessary expense entailed by the mere clerical help required for
carrying out the duty in the latter
mode is
well invested and
money that the duty itself may
almost as an
be
regarded
indispensable obligation
inseparable from any well regulated
system of Executive Government.
7.
On
my
arrival I found
no
general
Index of letters either received
or sent. And that there was
merely
an attempt to enter in separate books
a list of letters sent to the different