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dormant state of the profession, are needlessly running as much to rust as the instruments in the Provincial stores. A small expense will be incurred in bringing out the talent amongst the officers, and carrying them to the front; and the palpable saving will consist in the suspension of useless work and progression of future proper direction of effort. Savings. —The cost of all surveys now going on may be approximately estimated at £60,000 a year. Out of this expenditure I have no doubt that an experienced surveyor would soon make savings that would amply recoup apparent additions caused by the engagement of higher officers and the introduction of standard operations. These additions may be carried out on two principles: first, to let the officers retain their present appointments ; or second, to relieve them from those. New Establishment that is necessary. —The higher officers required would be —1. SurveyorGeneral, to devise and superintend the system, and prepare maps showing geographical results. 2. Astronomer and Geodesian, to observe latitudes and longitudes, and take charge of and work out geodetic operations. 3. Inspector of triangulations and reduced traverses, to see that a system were adhered to in field and office in all parts of the Colony. On the first principle, £600 a year would meet the extra cost, supposing each officer selected has now r £600 a year; on the second principle, the cost would be £2,400. Out of the Provincial staff, when they could be spared, four officers would require to be selected to carry on major triangulation ; they and their parties costing £1,200 a year each, or £4,800 a year. This process costs \A. to Id. per acre, according to country, and should be carried as Ray-traces from one geodesical station to another, as illustrated in the attached sketch. New Operations of Standard Work. —This operation need only cover one-fifth part of tho area of the Colony, and may be confined in the meantime to settled districts only. Its ultimate extent would be 13,400,000 acres, and cost £27,900 to £30,000, takiilg five or six years to complete; but probably half the Colony thus surveyed would suffice for many years, so that the cost may be reduced to £2,400 per annum for six years, or £4,800 per annum for three years, when the parties would bo disbanded, the officers being merged again into the Provincial staffs. Use of New Work. —The operation, when complete, would stand for ever for two purposes:— 1. It would settle the geographical and geodetic questions. 2. Serve as a basis for Provincial work in the minor triangulation and section surveys. The benefit, at a small cost, would be incalculable. This done, the higher officers might return to their previous positions or not, according to Parliamentary direction. The work would be one of Colonial satisfaction, as being of high scientific as well as practical import, and which could be referred to in other parts of the world. Jt would give New Zealand, in this branch of her interests, a status amongst civilized nations, and the supreme authorities in their prescience would not be losers in foreign estimation. Inspector of Triangulation's Duties. —While this was being carried out, the Inspector of Triangulations would be fully engaged in assisting the Provincial Surveyors in remodelling their staff (that is, where this was necessary), and in introducing system in minor triangulation and mathematically reduced traverses. Here he would be a watchman on the part of the Colony to support and guarantee good work —work that might be a little tiresome at first in some quarters, but which eventually would become as popular with all surveyors of every grade as it is in Otago, where the system has been in full operation in minor triangulation for seventeen years, and in section survey for eight. After this, all surveys would be done correctly, once and for all, based on unquestionable points, and reduced by checked calculations. The settler would be as safe in his boundaries as the Land Transfer Office would be in its responsibilities. The cost of obtaining this state of affairs would be as small as the ultimate economical saving would be large. Staffs once trained never lose their aptitude; slovenly work becomes obnoxious as strict habits are acquired; and honour, the most valuable attribute of the surveyor, would support the State-colonizing efforts, so that land settlement would be correct, rapid, and satisfactory to all parties. Actual Cost of various branches of Survey: —To illustrate this subject as a Colonial money question, I will adduce the following information on practical data: In Otago we executed 358,400 acres of major triangulation, at |d. per acre; 6,379,520 acres minor triangulation, at Id. to l|d. per acre; 2,297,633 acres section survey, at from 6d. to Is. 6d. per acre; according to situation, size of sections, and nature of country. Ultimate Cost of New Zealand Survey. —Now, taking all New Zealand at 67,000,000 acres, and considering the desultory mode of settlement operations called for by the Provinces, and especially those having gold fields, we cannot put down the average cost of settlement survey at less than 2s. an acre, as much has to be gone over where spotting survey is ordered— i.e., settlement before survey. Thus, before all New Zealand can be alienated from the Crown, £6,700,000 will have to be spent in survey operations. Then, that this be done efficiently for all time to come, surely the time and amounts required for standard operations, as shown in the preceding part of this memorandum, are a mere bagatelle. Subject frequently mooted previously. —I may say that I have been in correspondence on this subject with various members of tho General Government during the last ten years, and I am in a position now more than ever to make good my words, and which can be tested by the Land Transfer Office, for I have laid out (as stated above) 2,297,633 acres on the system I now wish to see applied to the whole Colony, and in which vast extent there has been no unrecordable work, no overlapping, all section survey on unquestionable trigonometrical points. Details. —I have necessarily merely noticed the salient points. If it be the opinion of the Legislature that the proposition should have practical force, details could then be entered into. These details consist principally in office assistants, topographical draftsmen, lithographic and photographic draftsmen and pressmen, all of whom and their appliances are to be had in the Otago Survey Department, and, I believe, in Wellington also. Provincial Survey inspected on behalf of the General Government. —Rules for plane or actual survey would also have to be laid down by law. This would be a most essential part of the scheme, for this most important branch will remain with the Provinces, and so should be guaranteed correct in all its operations by the above measure. Such rules have been adhered to for seventeen years in this Province, and they have been followed and supported by all qualified surveyors. The watching of this