| Summary: | System of Arrangement/Control Series: Chronological by dates when contracts accepted. Contents in Custody: Contract registration numbers allocated under three consecutive systems. Set 1: 1877 - numerical registration system Set 2: 1878-1902 - alpha-prefix annual single number system Set 3: 1903-1967 - single annual single number system. Range of Control Symbols Series: Units 1-3 Have no original control symbols apparent Unit 4 has a number `4' marked on spine. Contents in Custody: Set 1: 1 to 22 1877 Set 2: A1 to Z41 1879-1902 Set 3: 1/03 to 50/67 1903-1967. Background Under section 63 of the Melbourne Harbor Trust Act 1876 No.552 the Melbourne Harbor Trust Commissioners was empowered to enter, by its Corporate name, into contracts with any persons for the execution of any work authorized by the Act. Contracts could be lawfully exercised either under the common seal of the Commissioners, or by the signature of the secretary and any two of the Commissioners. Furthermore, the Commissioners were empowered to make regulations with respect to the management and mode of making contracts and the conduct of such contracts. Contents/Function This series consists of the registers of contracts entered into by the Melbourne Harbor Trust Commissioners from the establishment of the Trust in 1877. Contracts were registered in chronological order according to the date when accepted by the Commissioners. The contracts registered in this series have at 1 January 1990, been retained by the Port of Melbourne Authority. The P1 consignment of this series comprises a number of volumes and some loose leaf sheets. The volumes were used from 1877 to 1958 and their details include: number of contract date contract was accepted by the Commissioners (and sometimes also the date when the contract was to end) date of contract contractor particulars of contract journal or contract ledger page reference rate amount The date range of the loose leaf sheets overlaps that of the volumes by two years. They record information from 1956 to 1967, expanding the number of entries for each contract. The additional details include: price quoted report number date of meeting date signed date sealed remarks contractor's address deposit receipt number. Arrangement/Control Initially the contracts were registered under what was essentially an annual single number system which used alphabetic prefixes to identify the year of the contract. The first twenty-two contracts entered into between July and December 1877 were numbered sequentially from 1 to 22. Contracts entered into during 1878 were allocated registration symbols A1 to A47. In January 1879 the Registration symbols began again with B1 and this allocation of an alpha-prefix for each year continued through to Z41 of December 1902. The letter I was not used as a prefix in this system. Thereafter the registration of contracts followed the more standard annual single number format of using a combination of a sequential number and numerical representation of the year to form the registration symbol eg. 1/03, 2/03, 3/03 . 1/04 etc. The final contract registered in Unit 5 of the P1 consignment of this series was allocated the registration number 50/67 and dated the 28 June 1967. It is not known whether the registers continue after 1967.
|
|---|