A report of Mr. Barret, Head of the Administrative Service of French India, to Mr. Pujol, Governor of French India dated 24th July 1847, published in the preliminary pages of the 1st volume of the series, i.e. the index for the period 1823-1849, states the reason for publishing the index volumes. He says that by a letter of 8th September 1845, the Naval Minister (Ministre de la Marine) had informed the then Governor of French India Mr. Ducamper of the initiative taken by the administration of Martinique to prepare a decennial index of the orders in its Bulletin officiel and expressed the wish to see other French colonies do the same. He goes on to say that while the service requirements did not permit this, the task was spontaneously taken up by Mr. Le Peltier, principal naval clerk (commis principal de la marine). He further states that the index has been prepared from the publication of the 1st volume of the Bulletin till date and asks the governor’s permission to have it published. He justifies its utility as follows: “It will be of a real and constant utility; it will shorten the research, often very lengthy and uncertain, rendered necessary for the application of the laws and acts of public authority; it adheres to the views of the Department of Navy and Colonies, and it can be considered as filling an important gap in the service archives.” He then says that this index volume will be followed in future by quinquennial or decennial tables. ( Table Générale du Bulletin des actes administratifs 1823-1949, pages v-vi)
The first index volume covered a period of 27 years from 1823 to 1849. The second covered 15 years from 1850 to 1866. Thereafter the index became decennial. The last volume available in the IFP library is for the years 1907 to 1916, of which 4 years cover the Bulletin officiel (1907-1910) and the rest the Journal officiel (1911-1916), since the latter became the government’s sole gazette from 1911. It is not known whether the index continued after 1916
7 volumes containing subject indices. The height of the volumes range from 21 to 24.5 cm.
