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               THE ONTARIO ARCHIVES: SCOPE OF ITS
                           OPERATIONS

        (Paper read at the twenty-seventh annual meeting of
           the American Historical Association, held at
               Buffalo, N. Y., December 27-30, 1911)

                               BY

                        ALEXANDER FRASER

             LL. D., LITT. D., F. S. A., SCOT. EDIN.


Reprinted from the Annual Report of the American Historical Association
                     for 1911, pages 353-362

                           WASHINGTON
                              1913




                      THE ONTARIO ARCHIVES.

           By ALEXANDER FRASER, Provincial Archivist.


The line of demarcation between the Canadian or Dominion archives and
the Ontario or other provincial archives is somewhat similar to that
between the Federal and State archives in the United States. It consists
with the scope of the jurisdiction of the Dominion or major
commonwealth, and the narrower or minor jurisdiction of the Province.
This constitutes a clearly defined boundary within which both work
without conflict or overlapping of interests. Our public charter is an
imperial statute entitled the British North America act, and to-day,
when there are nine fully constituted, autonomous Provinces within the
Dominion of Canada, it is interesting to recall that when the British
North America act became law in 1867 the subtitle set forth that it was
"An act for the union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the
government thereof; and for purposes connected therewith."

This act provides for the government of Ontario a lieutenant-governor,
who represents the Crown; an executive council of ministers of state and
a legislature composed of duly elected representatives of the people. To
this body the act secures exclusive legislative powers in Ontario and
Quebec, in the matter of Crown lands, forests and mines; education, from
the public common school to the university; municipal government,
institutions and laws; incorporation of chartered companies--commercial,
financial, professional, or social; solemnization of marriage, involving
family history, vital statistics, etc.; property and civil rights;
administration of justice, embracing both civil and criminal
jurisdiction; agriculture and immigration, under which municipal,
industrial, and agricultural statistics are collected, tabulated, and
published; the founding and maintenance of provincial institutions such
as hospitals, asylums, reformatories, prisons, and institutions for the
instruction of the deaf and dumb and the blind; offices for the local
registration of deeds, titles to land; the licensing of shops, taverns,
hotels, auctioneers, etc.; the erection of local public works; the
authorization and regulation of transportation not interprovincial.

In short the Provincial Government gets close to the life of the people
and touches its business and social sides intimately. As at present
constituted the ministry comprises the departments of: The attorney
general, dealing with the administration of law; the provincial
secretary, controlling registration, and the public institutions; the
provincial treasurer, dealing with the public accounts; agriculture;
lands, forests, and mines; public works; and education. The prime
minister is statutorily president of the council and head of the
ministry. Besides these and exercising semi-ministerial or departmental
functions are two commissions, the hydro-electric commission and the
Government railway commission. These, with the legislature itself, are
the departments of government in which our archives originate.

Archives we have defined as the records, the business papers, of the
province having a permanent value. All archives need not be of
historical value in the narrow sense. Public documents may have a
business or record value apart from history, yet it would be hard to say
that any given document might not be found useful in some way in
connection with history. The main value of a document is as an evidence
of truth. Every document does not contain truth, yet even such a
document may, in effect, be a fact in history, and training and
experience lead to a reasonably true interpretation.

The Ontario Bureau of Archives, organized in 1903, is equally related
and attached to all the Government departments, and receives all papers
and documents of record value or of historical interest, not in current
use, from all branches of the public service. When possible, these
documents are classified, calendared, and indexed.

The archives originating in the legislative assembly are: The Scroll of
Parliament--the documents known by that title being the notes and
memoranda made by the clerk, of the routine proceedings of the house
during its sessions; the original signatures of the members of the
legislative assembly subscribed to the oath of allegiance when "sworn
in" as members of the assembly, the signatures being written on
parchment; copies of the statutes in the form in which they have been
assented to and signed by His Honor the Lieutenant Governor. These
copies are printed on good paper, and after having been assented to
become the originals of the statutes in force; and the original copy
pertaining to the consolidated statutes.

Among the assembly archives are the manuscripts of all sessional papers
not printed (a sessional paper is a return called for by order of the
house, whether printed or not, and the reports of departments and all
branches of the public service presented to the house); the originals of
all petitions presented to the house (these are not printed); the