THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF SURVEYORS BILL.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 150, 29 June 1881, Page 2

THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF SURVEYORS BILL.

? The object of the bill now before Parliament to provide " for the formation of an Institute of Surveyors in tho Colony of New Zealand, and for the incorporation thereof," is, Ist, to protect the qualified members of the profession against the intrusion of ignorant and incompetent men ; 2nd, to afford the public somo guarantee that persons claiming to be surveyors oro really competent to act in that capacity ; and 3rd, to provide some other test of efficiency than the mere fiat of a single Government officer. It is notorious that much surveying done in this colony has fallen grievously short of the requisite standard of excellence, and when it is recollected that a trivial blunder in a survey may involve the expenditure of thousands of pounds in subsequent litigation, it will be recognised that tho question of affording some protection to the public in this respect is ono of considerable importance. The main feature ot the new bill is that no person in future shall bo entitled to recover payment for surveying, unless he be either a member of the Institute of Surveyors, recently formed, or possess the certificates, or have passed tho examination, which would entitle him to membership, or is already an authorised surveyor under tho Land Transfer Act. The bill provides that the Council of the Institute —to be elected annually — shall have power to prescribe and make, or cause to be mado, such examination. It occurs to us that here a proviso is desirable that the Government should nominate a certain proportion of the hxamining Board, so as to guard against any idea that new-comers in tho profession may be excluded from practice through a jealous monopoly. There is no provision — as incorrectly Etated by a Cantorbnry paper — requiring admission by ballot as an essential qualification for practice after the due examination has been passed. Such a ruli would have been exceedingly objectionable, but, as it happens, it exists only in the imagination of the Southern scribe. In proof that there is no desire to create an unduly monopoly as against qualified persor.s, the members of the iustitute state that they are willing to recognise all certificates of efficiency from tho kindred assooiations in the other Australian colonies— where they have been proved to work very well — subject to the conditions that such recognition shall be reciprocal. This, however, is not embodied in the bill, and it would be well that it should be added in committee of the House. Looking at ihe question as a whole, it appears to us just as reasonable to grant the protection to the surveying profession as to lawyers, doctors, dentists and chemists, all of whom now are under protective acts. If caro be taken to guard against giving any undue monopoly, the measure appears to us a judicious and equitable one. It is contemplated, we hear from members of the institute, that it shall gradually found a colonial training college for engineers and surveyors, and also open a 1-cture-room for papers to be read by surveyors who have visited comparatively unknown parts of the colony, deBcribing its features, geographical, geological, botanical, mineral, <Sc, ani bo extend the general knowledge of the colony.