A minute book of the Parramatta Debating Society, dating from 1847, is held in the City of Parramatta Council Community Archives. This slim and fragile volume, discovered and purchased at a suburban Sydney auction house by a retired local archivist, was kindly donated to Council in 2017.
The volume will soon be more accessible as part of a digitisation project underway that focuses on the unique Community Archives material held at the Parramatta Heritage and Visitor Information Centre.
Entries in the minutes illustrate the developing interest in debating societies across Britain and the Colonies during the early-nineteenth century, through the lens of local life in the city of Parramatta.
Debating Societies
Debating in various forms has a long history and can be traced back to the forums of the ancient world, including those in Greece and India.
Modern forms of debating, and the establishment of debating societies in Britain and Europe, began during the 18th Century as part of a movement referred to as the Age of Enlightenment. By the early 19th Century, a culture of active debating societies had developed across Britain, an interest that soon spread to the Colonies. [1]
The Parramatta Debating Society
The Parramatta Debating Society formed in 1844, with meetings held in a room at the Australian Arms Hotel, which stood on the corner of George and Church Streets, Parramatta.[2]
Entry into the society was secured through a membership ballot, followed by the payment of a small annual fee. Funds raised from members were invested in the purchase of books for the Society’s growing library of literary, scholarly and scientific tomes. By 1846, the library was quite extensive, and there was even a “museum in the course of formation”.[3]
Historic Parramatta Municipal Council Meeting Minutes, held in the City of Parramatta Archives, confirm that the Parramatta Debating Society was still meeting by the end of the 19th Century. In 1891 approval is recorded for the Society’s monthly meetings to be held in the Council Chamber of the Parramatta Town Hall, at the rate of “7/6 per meeting".[4] A local newspaper article from 1904 indicates the society was still operating a decade or so later. [5]
Later newspaper articles and digitised historic minutes of the Parramatta School of Arts, also held by the City of Parramatta Archives, record meetings of the Parramatta Debating Society in their rooms during the 1930s [6].
Parramatta Debating Society Minutes Book
The Parramatta Debating Society minutes provide a fascinating insight into the operation of the Society. The list of interesting and somewhat philosophical topics, to say the least, discussed during 1847 include:
“Was there ever such a being as a Witch or Wizard possessed of supernatural powers?” - Negative
“Are dreams prophetic? - Affirmative
“Does the system of Infants Schools lead to their intellectual and physical advancement?” – Negative.
The volume itself is also particularly intriguing as it was used at a later time, during the 1880s, as a scrapbook, with newspaper images and column snippets pasted over some of the earlier pages of writing. Although some of the minutes are therefore partially obscured, the dual use of the volume only increases its unique and fascinating qualities, as well as its importance as a record of life in 19th Century Parramatta.
Michelle Goodman, Archivist, Parramatta Heritage and Visitor Information Centre, 2021
References:
1. Donna T. Andrew, "Popular Culture and Public Debate" in The Historical Journal, Vol. 39, Issue 02 (Cambridge University Press, June 1996), p. 406.
2 News from the Interior: Parramatta (Sydney Morning Herald), 19/06/1846, p. 3
3 Ibid.
4 Minutes of the Meeting of Parramatta Municipal Council Meeting, 16/10/1891
5 Parramatta Debating Society. (Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers’ Advocate), 17/12/1904, p.4
6 Debating Society for Parramatta. (Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers’ Advocate), 21/06/1934