"DEARTH OF SURVEYORS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13750, 15 May 1908, Page 7

"DEARTH OF SURVEYORS."

A; DENIAL and AN EXPLANATION.

.i : i Mr. Gerald A. Jackson, boil, secretary of the local committee of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors, writes: —"In this mora issue of your paper I notice again a- reference to '& dearth of surveyors as a reason for not giving effect to the recommendations of the. Native Land Commission. If you will kindly allow me to, I should like to again give this statement an emphatic denial. I. suppose this statement is persistently circulated Jjv the Department whose incompetence an<K ineptitude is responsible for the present stagnation in native lands. Owing to the unsatisfactory position of native surveys, surveyors cannot undertake this class of work, as the ambigu- j ous nature of the Court orders makes it im- j possible to kilo what the Native Lands j Department requires, and the trouble is ,j that if applied to they cannot tell. von. ' How can work possibly be done under these conditions? There is not a surveyor m Auckland who has attempted to do native surveys but has considerable sums of money due to him, that have been owing tor years, and that his chance of getting is very remote. If tho Native Lands Department requires any surveys done, and is in a position to say exactly what it requires, and is prepared to pay costs on completion of the work, I will guarantee that -as much work as is offered under these conditions will be taken up and completed by the profession without any delay."

• In view of complaints in New Zealand respecting the dearth of surveyors, the following statement by a correspondent in a Sydney paper is interesting :The remark s of the Minister for Lands re the dearth of surveyors and his difficulty in obtaining their services call for some reflections. The effect is only too apparent to the Department, but it does not seem to occur to the Minister that his Department's actions in the. past have been the cause of the present difficulty. In ■ the years • immediately succeeding the passing of the Land Act of 1884, surveyors were very much ill demand, and no difficulty was experienced in obtaining them, because the remuneration .was sufficiently attractive. The following decade, 1890 to 1900, was a quiet time for the profession generally, as the land rush had passed, and the supply of surveyors far exceeded the demand for their services. The Lands Department during this period (apparently recognising the state of the market) reduced its rates of remuneration, and used the pruning knife to such effect that scores of its surveyors were, from lack of remunerative employment, • forced into other walks of life. It now happens that the State is in a prosperous condition, and that the demand for land generally and the closer settlement policy of the Government have caused a revival of the land rush. The Department, however, fails to march with the times, and -to recognise the law of supply and demand, by keeping its rates the same as during the preceding decade of depression. Such a policy is opposed to all the laws of legitimate business. The price of surveyors' labour has risen in the market, and the Minister should recognise this fact by raising the remuneration of both his contract and salaried surveyors.