NRS-17813 | Maitland Branch rates registers [Hunter District Water Board]

This series consists of the Maitland office set of Rates registers maintained by the Hunter District Water Supply and Sewerage Board for properties supplied by the Board in Maitland, its environs and nearby townships.The series is organised by triennia, and, within each triennium, by municipality or township. Most volumes from before 1919 are preceded by an index to the streets of these communities. The entry for each property carries an entry number, known as the Register Number; these numbers run continuously from volume to volume within each triennium, and properties are normally referenced simply by register number, without regard to volume number or locality. Prior to the 1928-1931 triennium, the entry for each property includes both its current register number and the register number it bore in the previous triennium. At some time subsequent to the closing of the series, each entry has been annotated (for the most part in blue pencil) with the number of the property for the succeeding triennium also.There are 98 volumes, numbered 1-97 with one un-numbered, in large folio format. The volumes of this series were originally labelled on their spines; many labels survive, but not all are still legible. Moreover, a number of volumes are now partly or completely missing their spines. Where spine and labels have survived, each volume is identified by the dates of the relevant triennium and the names of the localities which it covers. The final triennium was never completed; the last group of volumes were labelled for 1937-1940, but the series was brought to a close at the end of June 1939. Most volumes also bear, pasted on the spine, paper labels with the volume number. The present volumes 1-59 (to the end of the 1922-1925 triennium) were originally numbered 3-61, and both labels are still visible on many of the registers. The labels bearing the current numbering, 1-97, appear to have been added after the closing of the series; one volume from the 1928-1931 triennium, which was re-used in July, 1940, was not present to be included in this numbering, though it is present again with the rest of the series held.The series displays some changes in format over the course of the period covered, but the information recorded about each property normally includes at least these items: Register Number, Assessment Number, Situation (street and, sometimes, house name or number; from 1925 Lot and Section numbers also appear), Tenant, Ratepaying Lessee, Owner, Owner’s Address, Description of Property, Assessed Value and the details of the rates payed on the property, including any arrears. Rates were normally due every six months; assessments were normally made annually. Provision is made from the beginning of the series for the recording of both Water Rates and Sewerage Rates, although properties in the Hunter did not begin to be connected to the Board’s sewers until 1907. From 1931 provision is also made for rates to be levied for Stormwater Drainage.This series is very closely related to two other series. From 1893 until 1904 the set of Rates Registers maintained at Newcastle included volumes for Maitland and its environs as well as for Newcastle itself and other localities in the Hunter District. The information contained in the Maitland set of volumes is duplicated by that in the Maitland volumes of the Newcastle set, which is now NRS 17810, of 275 volumes, covering the period from 1892 until 1939. The two sets of volumes constitute two independent series, numbered and indexed separately, but the register numbers of individual properties are continuous between the two series within each triennium. A new branch office was established for Cessnock and its vicinity during the 1928-1931 triennium, and from this time on a third series of registers covers Cessnock, again with property register numbers which run continuously with the other two series; this is now NRS 17814, of 37 volumes, concluding, like the other two series, in 1939. Earlier coverage of Cessnock, back as far as the 1907-1910 triennium, was provided by the present series of Maitland volumes, and five volumes which originally formed part of this present series, from the 1925-1928 triennium, were transferred to the new Cessnock office after its establishment; these now form part of NRS 17814.