H.—l.

12

branch on behalf of the Colony would rest with the Inspector, who would report infringements to the various Superintendents and to the Surveyor-General for notification to the Secretary for Crown Lands. To help the more backward Provinces, whether professionally or by money assistance—if necessary by way of loan—cannot be a subject of jealousy on the part of more favoured and wealthy portions of New Zealand, for they are an integral part of the whole, and, as their condition will get worse and worse by time, the cost of revisal, that certainly must come sooner or later, will ultimately fall on the whole. Also, if families in some portions of the Colony become impoverished by doubtful boundaries which entail heavy lawsuits, that impoverishment is so much from the wealth of the whole as a body politic. I have, &c, J. T. Thomson, Chief Surveyor of Otago and Commissioner The Hon. the Secretary for Crown Lands, of Crown Lands. Wellington. P.S.__l beg to forward to you a copy of the Triangulation of India up to 1870, lately forwarded to me by Colonel Thuillier, Surveyor-General, under whom, for many years, 1 had the honor of conducting one of the eleven branch surveys that, prior to 1853, existed in the Bengal Presidency. If you take the East Coast of India, from Calcutta to Cape Comorin, you will see measures almost identical with those I recommend for New Zealand, substituting major for great triangulation only, major there standing as secondary r triangulation. This map will also show at a glance the cause of the difference between my estimate (£30,000) and that of the Chief Surveyors' Conference (£150,000): Eay-trace or chain-major triangulation, in my opinion, meeting all scientific and practical requirements, minor triangulation being had recourse to to fill up the intervals, and this only as settlement goes on ; no immediate, more than ordinary, expenditure being incurred.—J. T. T.