D.-No. 7a.

registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and of the documents relating to Marriages under the Marriages Acts of 1854 and 1858. Marriages are sometimes performed by the Registrar. His duty as Secretary to the Registrar-General is at present slight. The Clerk, £175, records Deeds, and indexes, (395 Deeds received during first five months of this year.) The Clerk, £150, records Deeds, and makes a copy of plan on record in the registration book. Third Clerk, £60, copies letters, registers births, &c, and fills in forms of registration for Registrar's signature ; 167 letters were received during the first five months of the year, and 75 despatched. During that period there were registered 57 marriages, 191 births, and 61 deaths. All fees received are paid into the public account, as required by the Treasury Regulations. The Registrar is under bond for £500 ; £250 personal, £250 guarantee society. AYe have already recommended that, instead of transcribing Deeds sent for registration, attested copies, upon a prescribed form, should be sent with the Deeds by the persons applying for registration, aud upon comparison, if found correct, these copies should be bound into the registers, and a certificate of registration be granted. This will reduce the risk of error, facilitate registration, prevent arrears of work, and, with the adoption of copying presses for letters, afford opportunity for a considerable reduction of the present staff. For the purpose of establishing a means of check upou the collection of fees in this and similar offices, we suggest that the forms used in registration, upon the issues of which fees are chargeable, should be issued to the Registrars in books having each page numbered progressively with a butt as in a cheque book, upon which should be entered so much of the particulars of the registration as would indicate the fee chargeable. In cases where the fee is fixed its amount should be printed on the form for the information of the person paying so as to be a check upon overcharges. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DEPARTMENT. This Department is under the Ministerial supervision of the Honourable the Colonial Secretary. It consists of— The Director, £800. A Clerk, £300. A Draughtsman, £300. A Laboratory Assistant, £300. A Messenger and Museum Assistant, £150. The Director is engaged upon the geological examination of New Zealand, and reporting thereupon, in making collections for the Colonial Museum, of which this Department has the charge, and in analysing and ascertaining the value of the natural productions of the Colony. The Clerk, £300. Does all clerical work, and keeps the accounts and receipt and catalogue books of Museum. Is acting Curator of the Museum, and is placed in charge when the Director is absent. The Draughtsman, £300. Is engaged upon mapping, drawing of fossils, &c., and is also Botanical and Fossil Collector. The Laboratory Assistant, £300. Makes chemical analyses of the productions of the Colony, &c, submitted to the Department or collected, and keeps a record of his labours. Messenger and Museum Assistant £150. Ordinary duties of Messenger. Attends and assists in the Museum. There is not any field survey staff attached to this department. A large collection of manuscript reports ready for issue await publication. The small room used as a laboratory is quite unfit for that purpose. -It does not afford the opportunity for accurately making the investigations the staff is competent to perform, and which should be made if that staff is to be put to its fullest use. The absence of a continuously progressing field survey greatly hinders the usefulness and value of this Department. Without any increase to the cost of direction and office expenses, the labours of the Director might be assisted by a field staff to a degree quite in excess of the proportionate cost of that staff. At present whilst the Director is in the field all the work which he must transact in the office or Museum is at a standstill, and when he is in office the exploration of the country is stopped. For this reason the services of the present staff cannot now be as fully utilised as they should be. We recommend the publication, for general information, of the reports now lying uselessly in manuscript. This need not be costly, as the Government can now use the Printing Office for that purpose. AYe recommend that the term of engagement with all the officers employed in this Department should require that all collections made by them, and sketches and drawings in the field should be the property of the Colony. We suggest that provincial land surveys should be made as useful as possible in the service of the Geological Survey. AYe have already recommended the transfer of the superintendence and compilation of the meteorological records of the Colony to this Department as more in consonance with its duties. ELECTORAL. In our First Report (clause 54 and following) we dealt with Electoral matters ; we now shew the number of officers and their cost, irrespective of salaries paid for other offices held iv conjunction with those of Registration and Returning Officer's and Revising Officer's appointments. Registration and Returning Officers. Mongonui, £25. City of Nelson, Suburbs, Waimea, £75. Bay of Islands, £25. Picton, AVairau, £25.

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