162 TASMANIA^ STATE llECOUDS, 



(9) A complete File of the Hobart Town Gazette 

 (Government), commencing with Vol. I. on June 3rd, 1816. 

 In the Chief Secretary's Vaults. 



(10) Some Muster Rolls recently discovered at Laun- 

 ceston. 



SECOND EPOCH. ARTHUR AND ONWARDS. 



MS. CORRESPONDENCE. In the vault of the Chief 

 Secretary, we have an invaluable collection of MS. official docu- 

 ments, filed from the beginning of his Regime, by Tasmania's 

 most noteworthy Governor, Col. George Arthur. Counting to 

 the beginning of the present century, these form a library 

 of about 2,600 volumes, averaging about 270 pages. I am 

 engaged in preparing these for careful investigation by 

 compiling a Card Index of Subject, Authors, and including, 

 where possible, the names of such prominent persons as 

 appear. Owing to the pressure of other work, progress 

 has been slow, but the Commonwealth has given assistance, 

 and I am hopeful of proceeding much, faster this year, and 

 expect to have the bulk of the work done inside two years. 

 Certain Indices and Registers exist in reference to this MS., 

 ';)ut they are not of great value owing to (1) confused 

 method of indexing, (2) missing files, (3) the cumbrousness 

 involved in such a system when the dates of Files range 

 over nearly eighty years. These disadvantages will dis- 

 appear under a consecutive Card system. 



These 2,600 volumes contain certain correspondence of 

 a most valuable character (as, for instance, the beginnings 

 of Port Arthur, referred to above), and I am hopeful that 

 a careful search will reveal matter of utmost importance. 

 Original Shipping Records are bound up indiscriminately 

 in these Files, and when collated should afford intensely 

 interesting side-lights, indeed lights of primary importance, 

 on our early history. 



GOVERNOR'S DESPATCHES. In the vault, too, is 

 a complete series of Governor's Despatches, outward and 

 inward, from 1824 to 1856. These, as might be expected, 

 form a reasonably complete epitome of official acts and 

 observations during the period covered. They have never 

 been carefully examined, and when indexed may be expected 

 to yield a vast number of facts, some quite new to the 

 Historian. Some of them are the duplicate copies sent to 

 the Secretary of State; others original copies, and some 

 copies for filing. I do not know how the first named were 

 returned to Tasmania, or by whose authority. 



