12

H.—l9,

only be accomplished by prolonging office hours to midnight. This is bearing fruit however, for it is now sufficient to instruct a surveyor to do a thing without showing him how. A noticeable feature of the past half year has been the great extension of surveys for the Land Purchase Department, necessitating the employment of a number of surveyors outside the official staff. The surveys now going on are very extensive, and are likely to take some time to complete, if surveyors are subject to such delays as Mr. Clayton was in June, when the Natives forcibly stopped him and carried himself and party away to one of their villages for twelve days, until the Commissioner could arrange matters. The surveys for the Land Transfer Branch partake of the same improvement as the others. The official instructions lately issued for the guidance of Licensed Surveyors are looked upon by the surveyors with whom I have conversed as a boon to them, more especially the clause which directs adherence to the marks on the ground rather than to the record of them, but, it seems to me, that one step further in this direction is required, and that is, that this important matter should be enforced by legal enactment. You, sir, are doubtless aware that there is at present a difficulty in carrying out this useful provision, inasmuch as the Land Registrar cannot grant certificates outside the Crown Grant.* The office work of the year has been very heavy. The returns of the Chief Draughtsman show some of it, but it will be years before the chaos of maps can be reduced to order. The attempt in every case to replot the old work on the new block sheets has proved abortive. I am firmly convinced that it can never be done, excepting in some few cases. We content ourselves now with merely laying down the old work in pencil. The only point in which I have as yet been unable to carry out the general instructions is that which directs that Record Maps, to show the operations of the Land Transfer Branch, shall be prepared. The want of connection between the Major Triangulation and the section work has hitherto prevented this, but as the new surveys come in, data for starting this work will gradually accumulate sufficiently to allow of its accomplishment—at all events partially. The preparation of Crown Grant Record Maps for the new districts is simple, and an attempt has been made to construct them for the old districts by laboriously compiling the information from the Registry Office. As soon as any are complete, I propose reducing them to 40, and transmitting them to the General Office for photo-lithographing. Many of the old maps, from having been so many years rolled, now that they are folded and placed in the folios, show signs of wearing, wherever possible they must be carefully traced in blocks and mounted. The large number of Native block surveys received, as made by private authorised surveyors, which have all to be replotted on the block sheets, placed on Record and Index maps, together with the preparation of instruments of title under the Native Land Acts for the whole colony, occupies a large proportion of the time of the office staff; but the arrears of "memorials," I am happy to say, are gradually being worked off, though we are still a good eighteen months behind the Court. The office at Gisborne is kept up almost entirely in the interests of the Native surveys; all thos« made in that district being checked and plotted on block sheets before transmission to this office. A proper safe to keep these valuable records in is a great want in the local office. The new season commences with a considerable amount of work on hand, more especially in the matter of Land Purchase surveys which sum up a total area of nearly 600,000 acres. These surveys are undertaken at the request of the Commissioners. The official staff will not be able to accomplish them in any reasonable time. The settlement surveys are mostly in small detatched lots, which have been applied for, and are scattered from end to end of this district. In addition, there are a large number of applications for " boundary surveys." These surveys, which I have on several occasions drawn attention to, are the most troublesome and unprofitable the Department has to deal with. Their nature is accurately described in Major Palmer's report, page 9, last paragraph—under the system of free grants to " forty acre immigrants." They are becoming more difficult and expensive from day to day, as the chance of finding the old marks lessens, and their extent is exceedingly large. lam constantly in receipt of letters and visits from unfortunate settlers who are unable to find the whereabouts of their lands—and are thus prevented from occupying them. Most of the lands were surveyed, and granted twenty years ago. When I tell you that the surveys were magnetic compass surveys, the lines of road cut "by the mile," saplings used -as pegs, with no inspection, and that the country has been overrun by cattle and gum digger's fires, you will have some idea of the difficulties the surveyor has before him when he attempts to find any of the old marks in what is little better now than an undefined wilderness. These surveys are scattered all over the North, and their extent is very great. They are a perpetual drag on the energies of the Department, and are the most expensive, and least satisfactory of any. The ultimate cost of them is a matter which I hesitate to inquire into. This much at least is known, that they will cost double any new surveys. In addition, there are the road surveys, in exercise of the rights of the Crown through Native Lands, and lands sold by the Crown on conditions implying the survey by the applicants, with a five years reservation of the road rights. In the majority of cases this right must lapse for want of surveyors to lay out the roads, unless the Government should see fit to extend the time under which the right could be exercised. The boundary line between this district and Hawke's Bay will shortly require defining, unless it can be altered by Parliamentary enactment, and this would be the preferable course, if possible. I am informed by the Land Purchase Commisssioner that there is likely to be a considerable demand for surveys under the Native Land Acts in the Taupo district this next season, both for Land * The instructions of the Registrar-General of Land on this subject, are to the following effect that if the Chief Surveyor, on ascertaining by re-survey or otherwise, the necessity for alteration of any sectional boundaries, cause such alteration to be made on the public maps, and certifies to the Registrar accordingly, there is no reason for insisting on the correction of the Crown Grant or other instrument of title. The things to be insisted on are the rectification of the description of such boundaries by the Survey Department, and the corresponding correction of the public map before issue of the certificate of title. J. T. T.