a—ia

4

The total works for the year include 38 miles of cart-road felled, 118 miles formed, and 12-05 miles gravelled; 25-05 miles of bridle-road have been felled and cleared, and 72-95 miles constructed; 148-5 miles of road have been maintained in passable order, 10-4 miles have been improved, and 56 miles have been graded ready for construction : the drainage of swamps amounts to 5-55 miles. The total expenditure on ordinary roads and tracks is £54,249 4s. 2d., and the expenditure on village-homestead settlements, including road-works and advances on the security of work done, is £11,738 19s. Id.

Departmental. For the coming season the principal field-work will be the completion of the triangulations in Canterbury and Amuri, and the settlement-surveys in the several land districts. In the survey offices there will be the usual work of compilation and reduction of plans, of preparation of titles, of maps for piiblication, of descriptions and other miscellaneous work, and of attention to the requirements of the public. There is a constant stream of inquiry, both by personal interview and by letters, in connection with the numerous questions arising out of the settlement of the Crown and Native lands, the mining industry, the taking of roads, and the bringing of properties under the Land Transfer Act, each survey office, with its equipment of maps and experienced officers, being for its district the focus of intelligence on all such matters. In conclusion, I have to express regret at the recent reductions made the department, whereby the services of thirteen surveyors and ten draughtsmen were dispensed with, from no fault of their own, but because of less work in several land districts, and partly in compliance with the instruction to reduce expenditure. Within the last two months four young surveyors, trained in the department and highly qualified, resigned their appointments, after a service of from five to eight years each. The strength of the department now stands at sixty surveyors, sixty-five draughtsmen, and eight accountants and clerks. I have, &c, James McKerrow, Hon. G. F. Richardson, Minister of Lands. Surveyor-General.

HEAD OFFICE. Ist August, 1888. The number of letters and other papers received and despatched is 8,966; the expenditure passing through the accountants' books amounted to .€148,572 14s. 9d., for which 9,220 vouchers were certified, 960 of them being prepared in his office. Local authorities were paid £14,034 2s. 2d. under agreements sanctioned by the Appropriation Act, 18 of thembeing entered into during the past year. In the drawing-rooms 20 survey districts were prepared for publication, 6 geographical maps of portions of the colony were drawn, 98 illustrations were made for the books of Messrs. White and Kirk, besides many for other papers published by the Government. Two maps on the scale of fifteen miles to an inch were drawn to show the post-offices and postal routes in the colony, and 1,000 of each were printed in four colours. The maps prepared for the Colonial Exhibition were brought up to date and new statistical diagrams placed on one of them. Miscellaneous work consisted of representation maps, sheep and other districts, Midland Railway valuations, descriptions. The maps for the coming property-tax valuations are now being revised. Mr. Farquhar computed the latitudes and longitudes of twenty trig, stations in the southern portion of the Middle Island, the triangulation of which was closed in the previous year. Mr. Farquhar's work is computed and drawn with his usual care and neatness. The number of photograph negatives taken during the year is 549. The photolithographs and lithographs printed sum up to 520,275 impressions from 1,030 stones. We have in hand four maps for issue to travellers and tourists seeking recreation in New Zealand. One will show the central warm springs and the lakes of the North Island, one will represent the Mount Cook glacier region, one the interior picturesque lakes of Otago, and the fourth will show the western lakes and sounds. I have to thank Mr. Huddlestone, of the Hermitage, for information relative to the ice-region of Mount Cook. A. Barron,