The Printed Parliamentary Papers and their Indexes

The 'Votes and Proceedings' are the daily accounts of the business dealt with by the Assembly at each sitting. As well, the 'Votes and Proceedings' contain sessional registers of bills, addresses and orders for papers, standing and select committees appointed, and an alphabetical list of the Members of the Legislative Assembly. The 'Minutes of Proceedings' are the equivalent set of documents for the Legislative Council.

The remainder of the sessional set of volumes is the 'Parliamentary Papers' proper. These volumes contain reports presented pursuant to statute (usually departmental annual reports); reports presented by command, which are reports the Government decides on its own initiative to lay before Parliament; petitions, of which the text is printed and the signatures are not; and reports of Parliamentary committees. It is now the practice not to print the evidence of committees.

All papers not ordered to be printed may be found in the Assembly and Council series of Tabled Papers. It is possible that they have not survived in the Assembly records, as the Assembly Office reorganised their papers a number of times in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and many papers were destroyed.

Every sessional set has its own index, and there are also some consolidated indexes.

The Consolidated Indexes:
The Legislative Assembly has published a number of consolidated indexes. These are for the years:

1880-81 to 1891 (published 1912)
1904 to 1924 (published 1926)
1925 to 1946-47 (published 1949)
1947 to 1971 (published 1971)

See also the section in the published Legislative Assembly Guide 'Indexes Compiled in the Office'.

The Legislative Council has published a consolidated index to the papers of the Council from 1856 to 1954 in five volumes, which is invaluable not only for Council papers but for Assembly papers as well. It is much more than an index to the papers; it gives newspaper and 'Hansard' references, and references to the records of the Council. It is the:

'Consolidated Index to the Minutes of Proceedings and Printed Papers of the Legislative Council'

Volume 1: 1856 - 1874
Volume 2: 1874 - 1893
Volume 3: 1894 - 1913
Volume 4: 1914 - 1934
Volume 5: 1934 - 1954

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