Suggest changes to: Account Ledgers, 1843-1969 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

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This series consists of six sub-series of different ledgers containing classified and summarised entries of transactions found in other books of accounts maintained by Council, 1843-1969. The summaries are commonly undertaken on a semi-annual or annual schedule and provide information on the general profit and loss trends over a given period.

The ledgers are controlled by the Contracts Register and Index (AS-0751) for the period circa 01/01/1942 to circa 31/12/1973. They were created by the Administration Department (AG-0003) in the period 29/06/1970 to 14/09/1976 and the Town Clerks Department (AG-0040) in the period 03/1/1843 to 29/06/1970.

Classification of entries is done according to topics, functions, or unit of administration and record activities within a particular field of work based on income and expenses related to these activities.

a) Sub-series 35/1/1-15, City Fund Ledgers, 1843-1967

The earliest financial activities of Council are reflected in these ledgers. Receipts from its income and expenditure under general city administration are treated as City Fund and recorded in the City Fund Ledgers between 1843-1967. The first account books based their recording on the three main Council sources of revenues, namely, property rates, police rates and government grants. Money accruing from property rates is recorded as City Funds and utilised for city improvements while police rates, until 1846, constituted the so-called Police Funds for the operation of the police force. Proceeds from lighting rates, including government grants, are treated as general revenues for general purposes.

Ledger entries include works, market, city auctioneers (licenses), Council Chambers, waterworks, Bank of Australasia Accounts, market sheds, fees and fines for district surveyor, Sydney Bank Account, City lighting and boundary marks. Entries for City administration are departmentally separated as Mayor, City Engineer, City Surveyor, City Treasurer, and an entry for sewerage added later. Other details include rates accounted for individual wards. Works are entered by name or site of contracts for capital works and improvements. Fines, valuation charges, salaries of Mayors and Officers, wages of employees and miscellaneous city expenses are entered separately.

In the 1860s, entries include debentures, joint stock bank, cash, office of the Mayor, lighting expenses, general works, office expenses, salaries of officers, City Markets, water closets, rates, public baths, fees and fines, incidental expenses, miscellaneous receipts and interest repayments. New entries are noted on the succeeding ledgers and include City Wharves, Randwick Road, Town Hall, Colonial Government Endowment and a separate accounting entry for Sydney Common Account. An entry for Prince Alfred Park appears in mid-1870 until 1880. Subsequent entries include Exhibition Buildings and Cattle Saleyards Accounts. Much later, a separate account entry for Town Hall Loan Fund was made.

Other ledgers, until 1913, use almost all the same entries. The 1899 ledger is not part of this sub-series and represents a gap. However, sub-series 35/5/6 Miscellaneous Ledger contains account entries for 1899. The ledgers representing the period between 1914 and 1932 are not in the archives.

b) Sub-series 35/2/1-8, City Works Ledgers, 1854-1898

This sub-series contains references to Council's Capital Work program, mainly street works but also includes repairs to Council buildings, street cleaning, drainage and sewerage. The ledgers are prepared yearly with sub-headings relating to works being carried out and with a daily to monthly entries. Recordings of daily labour, piece work and long-term contracts are also posted.

Entries for 1854-1858 include city works like street cleansing, Town Hall repairs, drainage, filling in, kerbing, guttering and others. Classification is by name of job or contract, either by street name or other place name, then subdivision by year. This sub-series started under the City Commissioners and continued until their replacement by an elected Council.

The Day Labour Ledger was created in 1861 and recorded the wages paid to individuals hired for street watering, road metal works, costs of tools and repair and other materials. Sub-series 36/2/4 Journal of Day Labour, 1861-1864 relates to this ledger.

The first comprehensive ledger of City works was prepared in 1867 and concerns debit and credit for the year, with a fly-list of entries. Its classification is by street name and includes Improvement Committee, William Street watering, South Head Road, new hydrants, Pennant Hills Lighterage and wages, metal and metal breaking, street cleansing, markets, tools, stock and the supervising account, etc. Ledgers for the succeeding years followed the same format entries with an index added in 1870, and contractors' names are used as headings and a six-month abstracts included. An alphabetical index to contractors appears later.

The ledgers for 1880-1898 contain an alphabetical index, in addition to previous entries, and include other items such as Mayoral allowances, wages, salaries, payments to auditors, office expenses, and an entry for the Australian Gas Light Company Account. This sub-series relates to Sub-series 37/1/1-2 City Works Day Books.

c) Sub-series 35/3/1-3 Contract Ledgers, 1850-1901 (Paymaster Ledger)

The ledgers contain detailed accounts of City Works matters, with entries of contractors, amount of project, date of tender acceptance, progress payments, and materials provided for works.

Works are arranged under their contact name or simply by contractor's name. Contracts like Baths for Ladies and Baths for Gentlemen, etc., are also part of the ledgers entries. This sub-series also controls the series Contracts (AS-0065) through entries on contractors' names and year of contract preparation.

Each ledger has a separate alphabetical index of contractors/contracts which refers to folio numbers for easy retrieval purposes. The first and last ledgers in the sub-series have individual indexes inside their front and back covers, respectively. The indexes are not precisely alphabetical and each letter of the alphabet in the index is subdivided by year-date.

d) Sub-series 35/4/1-11 Specific Fund Ledgers, 1872-1969

These ledgers were created in relation to authority granted to Council by Acts of Parliament to raise funds for certain purposes, usually public works that cannot be supported solely from Council revenues. In some cases, the ledgers record funds coming to Council as loan, met by debentures, a government grant, or the expected revenues from existing projects.

The sub-series compose of the Market Wharf Ledger, 1872-1877 which covers capital works on this project; the Cattle Saleyards Ledger, 1881-1898 and Town Hall Loan Fund, 1881-1894; the Street Loan Fund Ledger, 1884-1892 for general street works; the Public Markets Loan Fund, 1893-1898 for the development and expansion of public city markets; the City Fund, 1897-1898 for a whole range of subjects of city administration; and the Lighting Account Ledger, 1901-1907 which refers to the electric development with references to gas and kerosene lamps and lamp-lighting costs.

e) Sub-series 35/5/1-12 Miscellaneous Ledgers, 1843-1969

These ledgers cover a whole range of subjects, with ambiguous titles and duplicates other ledgers in respect of subjects and date range. Ledger A (1843-1845) records rent tolls and fines received on a daily basis indicating in cash or otherwise.  A few payments are payments within Council's accounting system, rather than from outsiders. The  Building Surveyor's Ledger, 1844-1845 contains surveyor's service fees entry and includes dates and assessment rates for properties, name of surveyor, address of properties and payment details. Another ledger concerns council sanitation and other services, with names and addresses of persons and premises being service. Cleansing water closets, refuse collection and other items are also recorded. There is an alphabetical index to house holders and a reference to Eastern markets, 1885-1888.

Three of these ledgers cover the period 1884-1909 and they are called City Sundries. Entries are arranged by names of funds viz. Sydney Common Fund, Streets Loan Sinking Funds, Property Resumption Fund and Markets Resumption Suspense Accounts. Entries include salaries, works, revenues, interest and other subjects that related to the above funds.

f) Sub-series 35/6/1-16 General Fund Ledgers, 1933-1969

These ledgers cover a whole range of subjects such as City Engineer Department Motor Transport Sundries, General Recoverable Expenditure, Hyde Park Remodelling, Public Markets, Property Sales Suspense Account, Plant and Assets Purchased for Revenue, and Sundry Purchases on deferred payment. In later ledgers, entries include: Interest Account, Bayswater Road Widening, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Sinking Fund and others. The columnar entries provide information on date of transaction, folio number, particular or subject, debit, credit and balance figures.

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Account Ledgers, 1843-1969 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

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