N.Z. COASTAL SURVEYS

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 96

N.Z. COASTAL SURVEYS

! New Zealand marine surveys were made by order of the Admiralty between tho years 1848 and 1855 in the Acheron (Captain J. Lort Stokes) and the Pandora (Commander Bryan Drury). The Acheron surveys embraced the chief part of the coast and harbours of the Middle Island ■ and South (Stewart) Island, including that part of tho coast now known os the Southwestern Sounds. The various notices and directions resulting from these surveys, on which navigation now mainly relies, were compiled by Captain G. 11. Richards, R.N., and Frederick J. Evans, master, R.N. officers engaged in the surveys of tho Acheron. The hydrographic office of tho | Admiralty appends this note: —“It must be observed that there are no charts so accurate, and no directions so perfect, as not to furnish occasion for revision and amendment, and therefore officers, both in the royal and the mercantile navy, are requested to transmit to the Secretary of the Admiralty a notice of any errors or omissions they may discover, or any fresh information they may obtain with a view | to its improvement for the general benefit of the marine.” The same authority adds; “ The sagacious remarks of the illustrious navigator Cook on tho coast of New Zealand may even at the present day be consulted with advantage, and there is no doubt that the intelligent seaman may visit every part of tho New Zealand group, i if in possession of the Admiralty charts, ! in safely and security.”