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Array
(
    [entityType] => ITEM
    [entity] => Array
        (
            [contextId] => aims
            [description] => Array
                (
                    [0] => A separate Railway Department/Office was established as part of the Provincial Government bureacracy in 1868 and a Secretary for Railways appointed in the same year. Prior to this Railway matters had been dealt with by the Secretary for Public Works and before that by the provincial Secretary. This partly artificial series, which includes material created by the Public Works Department, covers inwards correspondence concerning the construction and maintenance of railways, including the Lyttelton Tunnel; roads and bridges; immigration barracks and other provincial infrastructure. Some Railways correspondence was removed from the orginal PWD and railways series and brought together in Railways 'Special Subject' Files.
                )

            [id] => 24889
            [idSort] => 24889
            [name] => Inwards Correspondence of the Secretary for  Railways [ICR]
            [custom] => Array
                (
                    [custom5] => Most items are foolscap pages; some, however, are combinations of many items in an early attempt at subject filing and these contain numerous pages. Other items may also have maps or plans as attachments.
                )

            [identifier] => Array
                (
                    [priref] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => 31249
                        )

                )

            [authenticityNote] => 

	All property of the Canterbury Provincial Government was transferred to the Crown on the dissolution of the provinces in 1876/77, under Section 9 of the Abolition of the Provinces Act 1875. In Canterbury, the Government’s responsibility was carried out by the Colonial Secretary, who permitted the Lands Department to have custody of the records because it inherited many of the functions previously performed by the Provincial Government and indeed was one of the only central government departments then based in Christchurch. Ownership of the records, however, was maintained by the Colonial Secretary’s office, later the Department of Internal Affairs. Over the next hundred years they were stored at the Canterbury Public Library, then at the new Lands and Survey Office in Worcester Street, transferred to the Museum as an approved repository of the National Archives, and finally moved to the new National Archives Christchurch Office in 1990. For a long period, some or all of the component series were incorporated with the Lands and Survey library; the Canterbury Association material that had been kept with the Provincial Government records was properly considered part of the administrative records of the Department, and attempts were made to include the Canterbury Provincial Archives in this same system. Further, over the early years a number of items were taken from the archives and the records became disordered. Several major attempts have been made to arrange and describe the records, the most comprehensive being done by Caroline Etherington working for National Archives while the records were at the Canterbury Museum. An earlier effort by W.A. Taylor resulted in the development of a typed and itemised list of extant correspondence. Over the years, researchers have made use of these lists, which are in effect a second ‘register’ providing easier access than the originals. Known as Taylor’s lists, they were collected and bound in red volumes covering the years 1853-1866.
            [digitalRecordInArchive] => 
            [hasBeginningDate] => Array
                (
                    [normalizedValue] => 1863-01-01T00:00:00.0Z
                    [dateQualifier] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => approximate
                            [1] => yearOnly
                        )

                )

            [hasEndDate] => Array
                (
                    [normalizedValue] => 1876-01-01T00:00:00.0Z
                    [dateQualifier] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => approximate
                            [1] => yearOnly
                        )

                )

            [hasOrHadCategory] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => Files
                            [type] => SeriesFormat
                        )

                    [1] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => Loose Papers
                            [type] => SeriesFormat
                        )

                )

            [history] => 

	For the years 1868 - 1874 there was a separate correspondence system for the Railways Office.  There is a numerical register of inwards correspondence - similar to those for ICPS and ICPW, and ten boxes of inwards letters (CP308-317).  There are also outwards letterbooks, though these date from 1868-1876.  Before 1874, Railways Correspondence can still be found in ICPW and ICPS.  There is also a separate group of inwards correspondence drawn from ICPS and ICPW on railways subjects dated from 1863-1876, and finally there are some special subject files on the railways as well.  The ICR letters have blue numbers.

	With the demise of the Provincial system of government in 1876, the office was folded back into the Provincial Secretary's office, which incorporated inwards correspondence to the secretary of public works into its existing registration system.
            [isAssociatedWithDate] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [type] => HoldingsYears
                            [hasBeginningDate] => Array
                                (
                                    [type] => YearStartHoldings
                                    [normalizedValue] => 1863-01-01T00:00:00.0Z
                                    [dateQualifier] => Array
                                        (
                                            [0] => exact
                                            [1] => yearOnly
                                        )

                                )

                            [hasEndDate] => Array
                                (
                                    [type] => YearEndHoldings
                                    [normalizedValue] => 1876-01-01T00:00:00.0Z
                                    [dateQualifier] => Array
                                        (
                                            [0] => exact
                                            [1] => yearOnly
                                        )

                                )

                        )

                )

            [isAssociatedWithPlace] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => Christchurch repository
                        )

                )

            [itemType] => Series
            [rdfType] => recordSet
            [recordIsMissing] => 
            [ricClassification] => CHRONOLOGICAL
            [ricClassificationDescription] => Individual items were registered chronologically, by date of receipt. For each day, letters were numbered - in red ink - in the order in which they were received. ICR letters have blue numbers.
            [seriesAccessContacts] => 

	None
            [seriesRestrictionReason] => 

	No access restrictions
            [setSpec] => series
        )

)