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triangulations were executed, generally by contract also, with base lines from one to two miles long chained three or four times with a common surveying chain, and sides from two to five miles long, the angles being observed with five-inch theodolites. There were no determinations of true position, nor of meridian; here, as elsewhere, recourse was had to the vague method of magnetic bearings. Nor were the various triangulations connected together, as Native lands intervened ; the only basis on which they were collated was that of the Naval Coast Surveys. As many years generally elapsed before the whole of a block was taken up, the section surveys were accordingly spread over a long period, and thus were made by several different men, most of whom took the work at low contract rates and paid little attention to accuracy. If there was no former survey at hand for him to start from, or if, as often happened from the frequent burning of the fern, no pegs could be found, 1 the surveyor would perhaps connect his starting point with some of the trigonometrical stations ; but it is not at all clear that the whole of the detail surveys were systematically founded on the triangulation, or that they were systematically corrected or tested in the office or field. You will see from this description that the work, if a little better than some of that in Auckland, nevertheless had very many inaccuracies and shortcomings. I need not enumerate them all; they are just such as I have already described at some length, the most serious perhaps being that in very many cases errors and imperfections and discrepancies have crept into the recordmaps and Crown grants, and that work done iu this way is really work to a great extent wasted, whether for cadastral or geographical purposes. The errors of acreage are not perhaps so large as might have been feared, very few cases having come to light where they amounted to one per cent. ; 3 and then the error has nearly always been on the side of the purchaser. 3 Their number also is less than might be supposed, inasmuch as several of the large pastoral licenses have since become freeholds, by sale from paper surveys, and remained in the same hands. Owing to these causes no great legal difficulties have yet arisen, and perhaps none such need be apprehended. Nevertheless, the errors are sufficiently many and large to create a-good deal of trouble and inconvenience and public distrust, and to prejudice the working of the Land Transfer Act in a manner which has already caused bitter complaint. Perhaps the chief difficulties hitherto have been in the town of Napier, part of which covers a rough site broken into hills and steep narrow valleys. The first survey, made nineteen or twenty years ago, was rather careless and inaccurate, and the suburban lots of from two to fifteen acres in this part of the town, seem to have been especially ill laid out. Now that they are being subdivided and brought under the Land Transfer Act, the errors of survey are cropping up; and discrepancies which were of little moment when the land was worth from £2 to .£3 per acre are regarded much more seriously now that its value has enormously increased. Here again, however, the discrepancy is in most instances in favour of the purchaser. The system which I described above is unfortunately that under which the greater part of the Hawke's Bay surveys have been done. Slowly, within the last few years, some improvement has taken place, Care is now taken that proper connections are made with former surveys and (since 1872) with Mr. Heale's triangulation wherever practicable, that details are procured for a topographical map, and that the plotting and areas are checked in the office, and the fieldbooks kept. The contract system, however, still prevails, there being no staff surveyors whatever, and there is very seldom any field examination. Altogether, about 1,126,800 acres have been surveyed and 320,000 acres triangulated by the province. But the triangulation, from its rongh and disconnected character, was of little use; nor was the detail generally, as I have explained, thoroughly connected with it. Hence, the only surveyed work which has been incorporated with a systematic triangulation is the small quantity, done since 1872, which has been tied iipon Mr. Heale's triangles; this does not exceed 150,000 acres ; the whole of the rest remains to be connected, and there can be no doubt that, on such connection being made, much if not all of it will need revision of some kind to set it right. Mr. Heale's triangles already overlap a large part of the area triangulated by the province, and the rest will also need to be absorbed by more perfect work; so that, for a summary of progress, it may all be omitted, and we shall have, — Acres. Triangulated, General Government .. .. .. 2,242,560 Provincial Lands — Section surveyed and connected with triangulation.. .. 150,000 Surveyed, but needing connection and revision .. .. 970,000 Unsurveyed .. .. .. .. .. .. 800,000 Native Lands — Native claims surveyed for Native Lands Court .. .. 1,124,000 Total area of Hawke's Bay .. .. 3,050,000 1 Even this system—namely that of starting from old pegs —is dangerous to accuracy unless excessive care be used, as boundary pegs are often wilfully removed. 2 Up to April, 1873, thirty-fivo such cases had been discovered and rectified. It was considered that discrepancies up to one per cent, were covered in the words " more or lees " in Crown grants. s Generally on account of a liberal allowance having been made at creek and river margins, &c.