The office of the Chief Secretary was the head administrative office of the Civil Government. Through it were channeled all departmental, consular, ecclesiastical, and individual correspondence, and all naval and military correspondence concerning civil matters. Local Government policy emanated only from this office, through letters and orders to the various heads of department, ordinances and publications in the Government Gazette. A centralized filing system with separate registry for both departmental and private matters (petitions) kept record of every query.
The office began to function on the 5th October 1813 with the arrival of the first Governor, when its preceding office of Public Secretary was abolished.
This Chief Secretary to Government was the highest civil authority, second only to the Governor, and worked in close consultation with and under directives of the Governor’s Office. The Chief Secretaries had charge of all Government records including the archives of the Order of St. John. They also supervised the preparation of the Annual Blue Book, censored the Government Press, and controlled the working of all public civil Departments. In the Commercial Department of the Chief Secretary’s office all ships were registered under the various Shipping Acts. This branch also issued:
- Bills of health, personal passports, and certificates of competency to master mariners, mates and padroni.
- Acts of naturalization and letters patent of denization to aliens.
- Warrants to act as advocate, notary, physician, broker, land surveyor, etc.
- Licenses to deal in marine stores, to act as auctioneer, to keep schools, to exercise the art of goldsmith, etc.
The Chief Secretary’s office also kept records of licenses granted by the Governor, for marriages performed in non-Catholic churches. After the 1921 Constitution all work dealing with purely local matters was taken over by the Maltese Government. The Maltese Imperial government dealt only with ‘matter reserved to the Crown’.