PROVINCIAL SURVEYS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2744, 10 May 1866, Page 4

PROVINCIAL SURVEYS.

To tht Editor of the Dailt Southern Ckosi. Sib —It is no great secret that for' some time past there hare been considerable misunderstandings between the Prorincial Government and the gentlemen who hare been employed to survey under the Government. Many of your readers may doubtless hare seen several of these gentlemen in town of late, anxiously awaiting the decisions and orders relative to the contracts for gurveying at Opotiki, Tauranga, &c. . It appears plain that some alteration in the present syitem is desirable, seeing that notwithstanding the barren state of th« Provincial Exchequer, if work is to be performed and well done, it -would be better to employ gentlemen qualified by study, training, and experience to carry out these important surveys, giving them a salary by which they could live, and make t them responsible for all work plotted in their district. . The lowest minimum rate is not sufficient for a gentleman having a wife and family, to induce him to leave home and camp out for months in the bush, with the probability of having to maintain his little band of followers through the survey ; and having rendered these men serviceable, obliged to keep them on unMl another job is obtained and the payment for the last survey extracted, perhaps twelve months afterwards, by warrant on the Treasury. By making a surveyor responsible for his work, and by giving him a fair remunerative salary, a Government will, only be able to obtain a guarantee that survey work will be faithfully and correctly performed, and by making the gentlemen employed understand that they hold their offices subject to some such an agreement and will be superseded in cases of error and incorrectness. There can be little doubt that the surveyors have had some grievance since the price for cutting foreat per mile in the Waikato was £3 2s. in excess of the price as advertised in your paper on the 20th ultimo, and for cutting fern per mile the price was £1 Us. above the advertised scale, whilst the townships in the Waikato were nearly £3 additional. Added to this difference in rates, the surveyors in the Waikato had the advantage of obtaining provisions at the Government stores. Gbavxmen.