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and closed road surveys on working plans, Road District and County maps; reported on fifteen road matters; supplied descriptions of new and amended boundaries of School Districts to Education office ; assisted the Census enumerator in fixing boundaries and descriptions of sub-districts, and was engaged nearly a month in preparing Property Tax returns, besides attending to his usual routine duties. Mr. Marsh has prepared compiled working plans and Crown grant record maps, where they required renewing, besides usual office work. Mr. William G. Runcie, the accountant, besides the ordinary book-keeping and correspondence, has recorded precis of, and indexed 3,153 letters received and sent, and has checked and tabulated the monthly Survey and Road reports; 240 plans have been received and entered by him. He has charge also of the stores, &c, to be issued to surveyors and draughtsmen, and pays all salaries, despatches all plans, parcels, and correspondence, and attends to all the work of the office. Land Transfer Work.—Mr. Thompson has examined and checked sixty-two maps for deposit, noted above, and Mr. Treseder has examined and checked eighty-six applications, 1,177 transfers, 890 mortgages in duplicate, ninety-four leases in duplicate, 126 transmissions, 979 draft certificates, and has placed 712 plans on certificates in duplicate. Lithographic Branch. —Mr. Percival has reduced and drawn thirty-one plans on transfer paper, and seven plans for photo-lithographing, making thirty-eight plans in all. Mr. Ross has photolithogmplied seven plans and printed 12,900 copies from the above, besides 500 protractor forms, and 400 circulars. Mr. Bain has mounted 380 maps of various descriptions. Proposed Operations for next Season. — As I have only five staff surveyors in the field, I expect the ordinary settlement survey will keep them fully employed. I therefore cannot undertake any large extent of triangulation this year, but whenever time can be spared, I shall endeavour to do what is most urgently required. In the Dunedin office there is a great deal more work to be done than I can possibly hope to accomplish with the present limited staff. First, the Land Transfer record maps are still very much in arrears, and, although I shall have all the future applications coloured on the maps, the work required to bring up the arrears to date would give employment to an extra hand for six months at least. Several Land office maps and Crown grant record maps require renewal, as some are nearly illegible. About twenty Road office maps also require renewal, as they are almost in pieces. There is a large amount of arrears to be overtaken on the compiled working plans. Mr. Browne's illness has contributed somewhat to this. The lithographic maps are also in arrears; a good many of the earlier blocks are out of print, and these, together with new lithographs required make up a large total. I should like very much to go on with some more of the eighty-chain maps of districts. I think it should be a special feature in these maps that railway stations, as well as railway lines, should be distinctly shown. I have made out a list of over twenty Survey Districts in Otago, which it would be a great advantage to have lithographed on the eigthy-chain scale. C. W. Adams, Chief Surveyor.

SOUTHLAND. Field Worli. —During the year there have been executed 109,000 acres of combined trigonometrical and topographical survey, also 37,000 acres of topographical survey only. Owing to the absence of a special column in the annual return form, I have been under the necessity of shewing the whole in one column, guarding against misapprehension, however, by a small note in the column of remarks. This triangulation, including topography, was executed along the eastern and southern flanks of the Takitimo mountains, being chiefly within the Wairaki and Centre Hill Survey Districts. There has always existed a gap in this locality on the triangulation maps, and the work that has been done will help to fill it up and give us an accurate idea of country that had formerly only been roughly sketched. During next season it may be desirable to completely fill up the gap by sending from the eastern side, across the Takitimos, a few large sized triangles, the apexes of which will join the narrow or ray trace triangulation, which some years ago was carried up the Waiau river. The high, broken nature of the country, which for years has been regarded merely as a waste, is, of course, the reason why the gap in the triangulation has existed so long, and I recommend its being filled in simply because during the season suitable for operations, it could be easily and economically effected. Mr. John Hay has sent in a special report in regard to the country, and I now forward it for your information along with plan to illustrate the report, same having been prepared by Mr. Deverell. In regard to rural and suburban surveys, there have been executed during the year 150 sections, embracing 3,979 acres. A large proportion of these sections was in bush, and this fact, combined with the small sectional size and the scattered nature of the surveys, will account for the cost being what it is. I might remark that nearly all the surveys were of sections that were laid off with the view of being offered for sale, partly for cash and partly on the deferred-pay-ment system. Many of the surveys were for Village Settlement purposes, this system of small settlement having, in several places in Southland, been very successfully carried out. I might state that eleven of the sections included under the head of " Rural and Suburban Surveys" were partly purchases and partly sawmill areas. I need hardly say that purchases prior to survey have been rare during the year, and that—owing to the dullness of the sawmilling industry—surveys of sawmill areas have been fewer than usual. The field staff, as you are aware, has been very small, and—owing to leave of absence having been recently granted to Mr. George Watson on account of his health—the staff' has now reached its lowest possible limit. Mr. Watson, I might state, is a promising, reliable, and efficient young officer, and I trust that his term of leave will restore his health and preserve his services to the department. It will be observed under the head of " other work " on general return, that Mr. Watson was engaged for a short time in the neighbourhood of the Bluff' making special surveys and procuring additional topographical data for maps of " defence." lam glad to note that the surveys made and the plans of same prepared by Mr. Deverell, secured the approval of the Defence Department. Office Work. —As will be seen from a return forwarded, there have been prepared during the year 131 Crown grants proper, these consisting jwincipally of half-caste and native titles. In addition to these