Mr Ballance and the Surveys.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1665, 26 January 1885, Page 2

Mr Ballance and the Surveys.

In lu's speech at Woodvil'e (ho lion Mr Ballaneo said “ that ho proposed to abolish the Survey Department, and in this way hoped to relievo the administration of the care of a lingo and unwoildy branch ; to make room for private enterprise and a healthv competition among professional men, and to save the colony over a hundred thousand a year, without in Cm least depriving it of thos' professiona. services necessary to the settlement of land.” In making such statements as the foregoing, Mr Ballance simply talked nonsense about a verv important department witb respect to the working of which ho knows nothing whatever. To break up the well organised Survey Department—-which is at present carrying cut a systematic scheme of triangulation and detail surveys in the North Island—and get the surveys done in a haphazard fashion by any private surveyors who chose to offer their services, would be to create a state of tilings which could only be described as 11 confusion worse confounded.” The results would be j imperfect and inaccurate surveys, I disputed boundaries, endless litiga j tion on tbe part of adjoining landowners, and general dissatisfaction i amongst country settlers. If Mr'

Ballance, with his senseless scheme, saved some money bj dismissing competent officers, he would at the same time cause infinitely more to be spent through the state of muddle, confusion, and litigation which would bo produced in connection with the surveys.