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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