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maps. They are used for all purposes, and duplicates are seldom made except when the originals become too much worn for further use. The old maps, which were most inconveniently large, have since been traced and transferred to sheets of more convenient size, but without being made conformable to any uniform system or single meridian. This branch then, generally, needs thorough reform. Summary of Progress. Trigonometrically and topographically surveyed : — Acres. North of Rangitata, and needing revision .. .. .. 1,200,000 South of Rangitata, trustworthy .. .. .. 500,000 Reconnaissance only, or section survey without triangulation and needing revision .. .. .. .. .. 6,990,000 Total area of Canterbury .. .. 8,690,000 About 1,642,000 acres have been section-surveyed, part within and part without the triangulation; and 1,913,000 acres have been sold or reserved. The Chief Surveyor cannot tell me how much of the section surveys is thoroughly trustworthy; but I suspect that most of the work north of the Rangitata will need some revision or verification before it can be incorporated on accurate cadastral maps. Otago. It is important to explain, at the outset of my remarks on the survey of this province, that, although the principle of free selection before section survey is extended to the 2,250,000 acreSj now absorbed into Otago, which once formed the Province of Southland I—also, at the discretion of the Provincial Government, to certain special lands in Otago proper—the system which very largely predominates is that of survey before selection; and this has from the first affected the plan and method of the provincial survey. To the surveyor and all connected with the land, as I hardly need point out, survey before selection is in many ways an enormous boon. It avoids the trouble, confusion, loss of time, inaccuracy and expense of the " spotting" system; and substitutes for it a methodical process, by which the sections, roads, and village and other sites are laid out and mapped beforehand on an intelligent and careful plan, and the purchaser put into possession of his land and his title to it without trouble or delay. Hence the surveys of Otago, which have mainly been carried out on this safe and steady system, are now on the whole in a better state than those of the other provinces. It must not, however, be supposed that the process of survey before selection makes all things easy for the surveyor. Though it enables him to dictate how the lands shall be laid out, and to adhere to order and accuracy, nothing is more obvious than that great exertions will often need to be made by the Survey Department to keep ahead of, or at least up to, the march of settlement. It is also clear that, to carry it on effectually and without waste, there must be a liberal supply of money and men, and a vigorous system of survey, which shall not only fulfil its immediate purpose of bringing lands measured with fair accuracy promptly into the market, but shall produce work sufficiently good to be afterwards incorporated into a better system if desired. In Otago these requisites have fortunately been met, and as a consequence there have been but few errors and very little waste. The late Chief Surveyor, Mr. J. T. Thomson, established in 1861 a uniform system of surveying, which, if not highly scientific or scrupulously exact, was at least simple and practical, and not likely to introduce inordinate errors or distortions. Upon this system, the surveys have been pushed on as quickly as possible, under the direction of Mr. Thomson, and latterly under that of his successor, Mr. McKerrow. They have generally kept pace with the demands of settlement, and are at present in a forward state. A short account of the Otago system may now be given. As a first step, a reconnaissance survey of the province was made between 1856 and 1863, in three large subdivisions embracing all but the very wild mountainous district on the western seaboard. The main object in making this survey was to secure a fair map of the chief natural features of the country, partly for ulterior survey uses, partly as a guide for the apportionment of pastoral runs, reserves, &c, and for the subdivision of the province into districts of various kinds ; the natural features as shown on the map being taken for boundaries in all these cases. No great accuracy was attempted; cross-bearings and sketches from a few selected points formed the process mainly relied on, though in one part the chief points were fixed by a rough triangulation. This survey was mapped on the scale of two inches to a mile, and gave a pretty good general knowledge of the country. It had been intended in the next place to carry out a sort of triangulation from a series of bases some 60 miles long, whose lengths were to be found by determining the latitudes of their extremities with an eight-inch instrument. This plan, however, was abandoned from want of time, owing to the rapid spread of settlement which followed upon the discovery of gold; and the following one was adopted in its stead. Otago proper was divided, for survey purposes only, into 1 Only 800,000 acres now remain for free selection.