7

C.-2

sections; at the end of the present year, on the 30th June, they amount to 25,294 acres, in 184 sections. Mr. Bullard has completed the Maruia Block, and Mr. Greenfield the revision.survey at Lake Eotoiti. Gold-mining and Mineral-Lease Surveys. —There have been a larger area and twice the number of sections surveyed in this class than last year. In the beginning of the year a number of applications in the Eeefton and Owen Districts were made, and the prospect of a company being formed at Collingwood to work the coal-deposits there led to more applications for mineral leases. The District Surveyor at Eeefton has been fully employed with mineral and mining surveys. Mr. W. C. Wright had to be detached from the Nelson office to undertake mining surveys at the Owen, no other officer being available. Mr. T. Sadd had to be taken from sectional work in the Nelson District to survey mineral leases at Collingwood, urgently required to enable companies to be formed. Fewer applications have been made in the Grey District; and one or two large mineral-lease applications have come in recently in the Buller District. In October Mr. W. C. Wright was sent from the Nelson office to make a special survey and report on the Great Eepublic Company's mine at the Ngakawau, for the Mines Department. In the Eeefton District there are seventeen mining surveys in arrear, and fifteen in the Buller. In the Collingwood District there are still three mineral-lease applications unsurveyed, amounting to 1,500 acres. Town Section Survey. —Mr. J. Snodgrass laid off eighty-four sections on the Colliery Eeserve, Wangamoa, upon which miners had settled. Mr. Montgoinerie revised forty sections and brought them under standard survey at Eeefton. As the land near the Owen reefs was being rapidly occupied by miners, Mr. F. Greenfield laid off a village site, and located ninety-seven sections; and buildings are being rapidly constructed there. Office and Land Transfer Work. —There has been more work done this year in the Land Transfer branch than last, owing to temporary assistance being given by Messrs. Spreat and Mason, and occasional help by officers taken from survey work: 192 certificates under the Transfer Act, and 148 certificates of title for purchased sections, have been prepared, requiring 867 plans. There have been 213 plans examined and passed. Forty-six plots, fifty-three registered plans, and eleven tracings and compiled plans have been made. There are about 150 certificates in arrear, and purchases of leases being constantly completed makes it difficult for us to keep up this current work. More Crown-grant record maps require to be constructed, which we have not been able to undertake owing to pressure of other work. There have been 359 leases and licenses, requiring 766 plans, prepared. Thirty-seven new block sheets have been made, and thirteen new district application maps have been compiled. Two new plans of mining districts have also been compiled from recent surveys. One hundred and nineteen plots and forty-four tracings have been received from field surveyors, and checked and recorded during the year. In addition to current survey work there has been the preparation of tracings and specifications for roadwork, placed under the charge of the department. Work in Hand and Proposed Operations, 1887-88. —In the Buller Circuit Mr. Snodgrass has about three triangles to connect the Buller triangulation with the Karamea, and to close on that base as a check upon the work. He has also in hand the sectionising of 2,000 acres of bush land for special settlement at the Little Wanganui, but, as he is the only officer in a large district, he will require some assistance. Messrs. Smith and Thompson, in the Amuri, have about five thousand acres of triangulation and about eight thousand acres of leasehold in hand, up the Ada and Henry Valleys ; and it is proposed to complete the triangulation between the Waiau and Doubtful Eivers, which will define a further portion of the main range, forming at present a very undefined boundary of county, ridings, and electoral districts. When the back country is open, traverses of roads not yet legalised can be undertaken, after the last season's work has been plotted. Mr. W. D. Murray, having now completed the triangulation of the bays and sounds round the French Pass, will be able to locate all the old surveys and new applications for land in the several bays, which will occupy the greater part of the year. Mr. Sadd will require to complete the field-work of about three thousand acres of applications and revision at Kaiteriteri, partly completed when sent to the Collingwood District, to which part it will be necessary to return in order to overtake the arrears accumulated there, amounting to sixty-five scattered applications, containing 6,000 acres. Messrs. Greenfield and Bullard, having completed their respective surveys, are required in the Motueka and Waimea Districts to overtake arrears of applications, amounting to seventy-four sections, with an area of 7,494 acres. There are also about twenty-six applications for land distributed in isolated parts of valleys tributary to the Buller Eiver. John S. Browning, Chief Surveyor.

WESTLAND. The tabular statement furnished herewith gives the work done during the year, and the explanatory notes on said statement make it unnecessary for me to enlarge upon the various descriptions of survey executed during the year. In regard to the triangulation, however, I beg to report that it is finished, at least as far as present requirements are concerned. Mr. Murray during the past season carried it down to Martin's Bay, and connected there with the Otago triangulation, and the Westland District triangulation may therefore be said to be practically completed, seeing the network extends now from its northern to its southern boundary along the 220 miles of sea-coast, over a belt of land of an average width of fifteen miles, and also across the dividing range into Canterbury at three points—namely, by Hurunui Saddle, Arthur's Pass, and Eakaia headwaters—and into Otago by the Haast Pass, the closure with the Martin's Bay circuit triangulation is not satisfactory: the difference between it and the Westland triangulation amounts