National Debt Commission, 1935-1951

Component identifier:

Series 64

Content Summary:

The National Debt Commission was set up in 1923 under the National Debt Sinking Fund Act. It was responsible for applying the Commonwealth National Debt Sinking Fund to the repurchasing or redeeming of Commonwealth securities and it controlled the state sinking funds established under the Financial Agreement. The Chief Justice was one of the members of the Commission.

The series contains various annual reports of the Commission, papers and minutes of some of its meetings, typescript agenda papers (including minutes, reports, financial statements and cables) and a pamphlet of the Victorian Treasury Committee entitled Sinking and depreciation funds of governments and public bodies (1935). There is a small amount of correspondence, dating from April 1936-November 1950, mainly with W. C. Thomas and A. C. Joyce, the Secretaries of the Commission and with H. J. Sheehan of the Commonwealth Treasury. It is concerned with the application of sinking fund moneys in London, the minutes of meetings, and the interpretation of the 1930 National Debt Sinking Fund Act.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The bulk of the collection was presented to the National Library by Sir John Latham in December 1963, a few months before his death. In November 1974 the Library purchased some further papers from a secondhand book dealer. They comprised family letters and photographs, some diaries and papers relating to the High Court. These papers have been amalgamated into the original collection.

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