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In Taranaki 17 miles of cart-road have been constructed, including 7 bridges 20ft. to 120 ft. in length, and 27 miles of bush-roads have been felled and cleared, developing about 28,000 acres of Crown lands, at a cost of £7,863 17s. sd. In Wellington 14 miles of cart-road have been constructed, 23 miles of bush road-lines felled and cleared, and 84 miles of road graded through forest preparatory to formation, assisting to open up over 100,000 acres of Crown lands, at a cost of £8,342 os. 6d. In Nelson 2i miles of cart-road have been formed, 9| miles have been widened and metalled, and Z7\ miles graded ready for construction. The Crown lands benefited are about 11,000 acres, and the cost of the works for the year amounts to £4,610 13s. 2d. In Westland 7j miles of cart-road have been constructed for the benefit of 20,000 acres of Crown lands, at a cost of £4,594 12s. Bd. In Canterbury about 6 miles of cart-road have been formed, at a cost of £2,529 12s. 7d. In Otago 37| miles of cart-road have been constructed or improved, and 33i miles of track formed, for the development of over 200,000 acres of Crown lands, at a cost of £8,297 11s. In Southland 13i miles of cart-road have been made, 8i miles of bridle-track, and li miles cleared for the benefit of 18,200 acres of Crown lands, at a cost of £3,956 2s. 4d. It will thus be seen that during the past year 171| miles of road have been graded ready for construction, 68| miles have been felled and cleared for formation, 89i miles of bridle-road have been made, 9\ miles have been widened into cart-road, and 160| miles of cart-road have been constructed or improved, the total cost being £64,964 ss. 3d. Future Operations. In the future there will be, as in the past, the constant office-work of posting up the record and index and selection maps, to keep pace with the progress of the survey; the preparation of Crown grants, certificates of title, leases and licenses under the various tenures of the Land Act; the land-transfer work; and the attention required by the inquiries of the public. These and other current demands so press on a diminished staff as to leave but little time to prepare for publication the great wealth of topographical information treasured up in the strong rooms of the department. It would be greatly to the public advantage could the issue of maps be accelerated, especially the one-mile scale for local purposes, and the four- and eight-mile scales for geographical information. Every opportunity of pushing this work will be availed of. In the field the main work will be in the extension of the settlement survey, more especially in the bush districts of Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, and Otago. In the other land districts the amount of settlement survey during the season will be regulated very much by the number of applications made for land. In Canterbury minor triangulation and. topographical survey will be extended over some of the back high-lying pastoral country, so as to have reliable maps, in anticipation of the re-letting of the runs two years hence. With the force at command this will occupy both the ensuing summer and the next. Reduction of Staff. During the last two or three months the department has been retrenched to the extent of dispensing with the services of six surveyors with their parties and nine draughtsmen; the saving on annual expenditure will be about £6,200. The strength of the department is'now 10 chief surveyors, 62 surveyors engaged on field-work, 8 surveyors employed in offices, 60 draughtsmen, 11 clerks and computer, 19 cadets, 1 photographer, and 7 lithographic printers; in addition to which there are 8 surveyors and 18 draughtsmen temporarily employed. The current charge, inclusive of wages of survey parties and all contingencies, is about £85,000 a year, of which about £15,000 will be recovered for services performed, leaving £70,000 chargeable to Crown lands. The number of draughtsmen may appear out of proportion to the number of surveyors, until it is remembered that there are twelve principal survey offices to man, besides ten minor district offices, the closing of any one of which would cause very great public inconvenience to the locality affected. I have, &c, J. McKerrow, The Hon. J. Ballance, Minister of Lands. Surveyor-General.