8.
the transfer of Sir John's papers", "it was agreed that both the originals and the copies of the papers would be transferred to the custody of the Australian Archives". Professor Neale would wait for Mr Smith to tell him when Mr Smith wished the Australian Archives to take custody of the papers. On "[t]he question of access", Professor Neale added, "[g]iven the nature of the sensitive papers, these would normally be administered by the official policy governing such papers whether in the custody of the Australian Archives or of the Royal Archives at Windsor".
22 Next in chronological sequence are letters sent from Mr Smith to Sir John Kerr after his departure from Government House during the period between his retirement from the office of Governor-General on 8 December 1977 and the deposit of the correspondence with the Archives on 26 August 1978. The letters are handwritten on "Government House" letterhead. They reveal that Mr Smith, acting alone and outside working hours, laboriously made photocopies of the correspondence and then sent those photocopies to Sir John. Mr Smith referred to the correspondence as then on a "file" and described that file as being kept "in my strong-room under absolute security until the task is completed and the original file is in Archives". When the photocopying was completed, Mr Smith wrote to Sir John announcing that "[t]he task is done" and that "[t]he files will now be sealed and lodged with the Director-General of Archives, with instructions that they are to remain closed until after 8 December 2037, ie 60 years after you left office".
23 As to the fate of the photocopies, the agreed facts reveal that a member of the Kerr family arranged for them to be collected by the Archives not long after the death of Sir John's widow on 16 December 1997. Whether or not the photocopies are Commonwealth records is not in issue in the appeal.
24 Also in evidence are documents which indicate that correspondence between Her Majesty and each of Sir Paul Hasluck, Sir Zelman Cowen and Sir Ninian Stephen has come into the care and management of the Archives. The contents of those documents also provide some evidence of the circumstances in which that occurred.
25 In relation to Sir Paul Hasluck, documents comprising his "private notebooks and personal files", itemised to include "copies of despatches written by the Governor-General for the information of Her Majesty the Queen and the acknowledgements made of them by the Private Secretary to the Queen", were deposited with the Australian Archives on 16 December 1974. The deposit was apparently made by Sir Paul himself. Much later, on 29 May 1989, Sir Paul executed an "Instrument of Deposit" in which he stipulated that, except for those which would be exempt under the provisions of the Archives Act if they were Commonwealth records, the deposited documents "will be made available for
