LAND SURVEY RESTRICTIONS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17986, 1 February 1924, Page 11

LAND SURVEY RESTRICTIONS.

TO THE EDITO3 OP "THE PBESS." Sir,—There can bo no question about tho fact that for years past the Land and Survey Department has aimed at getting full control of the Land Transfer Office. And the reason ie not far t-o seek. 'When our Crown lands were sold, and the great leasehold system was inaugurated and developed, the Land and Survey branch speedily blossomed out into a big Department, many more clerks and draughtsmen, inspectors, rangers,and rent receivers were added to tho staff; the Land Boards taking on a new and enlarged lease of life and dignity. On Mr Massey's advent to power, his freehold policy was recognised by the senior officials as a death-blow to the Department, for, as they argued, if the leaseholds were converted into freehold, quite an army would be dispensed with. So, for soma y«inrs there lias existed a large amount of friction between the Lands and Land Transfer Departments, as the former successfully whittled away the powers of the District Land Registrar. The original Land Transfer Act was amended, giving power to tho Surveyor-General to make land transfer survey regulations, thereby relegating the registrars to a back seat. The differences of opinion became so accentuated that in one case the Chief Surveyor and tho Registrar ceased altogether to be on speaking terms, as a result- of continued pinpricking and irritation. "Within the last few months new survey regulations hav-e been issued by tho Surveyor-General, imposing fresh restrictions on surveyors, not for the real betterment of the work, but so that the plans would occupy additional time m checking small details in tho office. It lias been the practice of the Survey Department to check Staff surveyors' plans in a very perfunctory manner; while the plans of licensed surveyors, - which are certified as correct by Statutory declaration, are minutely examined and conformity to regulations demanded, the additional new requirements such as furnishing copies of field books, etc., insisted on. In all these matters the -Registrar has no say. even waen he is satisfied that some requirements are altogether unnecessary. Any layman would assume that the new regulations were demanded as the result of faulty surveys. There is, however, absolutely no foundation for this supposition. The Titles Assurance Fund has never been called upon for compensation in respect of surveys; so the one point upon which new and more strict regulations might have been necessary, falls to the ground. Now, as to the remedy. Following out tho idea of the original Land Transfer Act, tho whole control should be in the hands of the several Land Registrars, with a staff of officers independent of the Survey Department. The Registrar ic responsible for the issue of titles and should have undisputed authority. This would mean nothing more than a reversion to the practice of a few years ago, before the comparatively recent encroachment on tho powers of the Registrar.—Yours, etc., COLONIST.