SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 29

SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

ANNUAL REPORT. (Fkoh Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 20. The annual report of the Survey Department, presented to Parliament to-day, states that the demands on the department have been particularly heavy this year. An average number of 73 staff surveyors have been employed, and it Was found necessary to increase the strength by the. addition of eight authorised assistants in. charge of parties under the direct supervision and control of a similar number of the staff surveyors. Besides, the foregoing, a number of licensed surveyors were from time to time employed on contract in sectionising Crown lands. Fortyfive undertook surveys at schedule rates of Native Land and Court orders, and mining claims, and many were engaged privately on land transfer surveys. All of these classes of survey come under the scrutiny of the department, and must receive its approval before the plans become authoritative. By far the greater part of the work has been sectional survey necessitated by the' unceasing demand for land, though surveys of Native lands have been considerable, for in addition to the usual amount of Native Land" Court orders, extensive surveys and reports have been made for the Maori Land Boards preliminary to the disposal of the land.