C.—2

HEAD OFFICE. General Survey Office, Wellington, New Zealand, Ist July, 1887; The correspondence during the year just closed amounts to 9,080 letters and other papers received and despatched, inclusive of 1,306 references from other departments. The accounts show an expenditure of £159,369 2s. Id., of which £94,404 16s. 10d. is for surveys, and £64,964 ss. 3d. for roads and tracks to open the lands surveyed or about to be surveyed for disposal. Local authorities have expended £24,331 18s. 2d. under 64 agreements existing at the end of the previous year or made during the year just closed, and the balance has been expended under the direct supervision of the department. The maps prepared and published during the year are : 19 district lithographs on the one-mile scale, 5 sale plans, 28 mining plans and diagrams, 37 book illustrations, 1 harbour chart, 7 electoral maps, and a number of minor plans and diagrams. For the Forest Department 65 drawings have been made, and for the Mines and other departments 16 sketches and designs have been drawn. The number of photographic negatives taken is 499, and the number of silver prints is 444. Lithographs and photo-lithographs printed amount to 701,019 from 1,027 diagrams and maps. The miscellaneous duties of the draughtsmen continue to increase somewhat to the detriment of the real work of the office in the publication of maps. There are twelve kinds of districts of which maps have to be kept up, and these are in a state of change from week to week. One of the many processes of litho-engraving has been adapted for book illustrations. The views on the margin of Mr. Mueller's reconnaisance map of the Landsborough country are examples. The originals are sketches by Mr. Charles Douglas, one of Mr. Mueller's party, and they have been drawn for lithography by Mr. Deverill. The Surveyor-General. A. Barron.