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other end of the building. Very considerable progress has been made in reducing the arrears of mapping remaining on hand last year; 7 new survey district plans on the scale of 40 chains to an inch have been made, 10 district plans have been traced for photolithographicg, 16 have been traced and mounted for use in the public room, and 3 more are in progress, and 5 districts have been corrected and brought up to date, to agree with the recent surveys. The topographical plans of the 7 districts triangulated during the past summer will be completed during the next two months, and will be immediately copied, so that the present run-boundaries can be marked on them. I shall then have sufficient data to go on with the new run-plans required during next year. On these plans I shall be enabled to show all the boundary- and subdivision-fences of the runs, and much detailed information respecting the character and grazing capabilities of the pastoral country proposed to be relet in 1889. The correspondence of the Survey Office is now so intermixed with that of the Crown Lands Department that it is impossible to define accurately the amount appertaining to each office. The inward and outward letters, circulars, &c, recorded during the year ended the 30th June last was 7,595. The transfer of Mr. Williams, the Chief Draughtsman, to undertake the duties of Eeceiver of Land Eevenue, in place of Mr. Blakiston, who for many years held that appointment, and who, I regret, was one of those who lost his appointment under the general scheme of retrenchment ordered by the Government, has thrown a great deal of additional work on Messrs. Shaw and Bondelev, who now have the whole of the work in connection with the correspondence of the two offices to carry on and record. The correspondence during the last four months, since the change, shows little sign of diminishing, and it is only by the closest application on their part that it is not allowed to get in arrear. Retrenchment. —I sincerely regret that the reduction in the office staff ordered by the Government has led to the retirement of Mr. McCarclell. Mr. Leversedge, sen., also, who for many years was in charge of the public map-room, where his carefulness and attention to his duties were highly appreciated by the many applicants for lands in the Canterbury District, was, owing to the decrease of work in his branch of the office, one of the Canterbury officers who had to be retrenched. The compulsory retirement of officers after many years—perhaps a whole life-time—given to the public service of the colony, without any adequate retiring-allowance or without any pension, whilst other officers of perhaps shorter or not such valuable service retire with a good pension, simply because they happened to be appointed in the first instance by the General Government instead of the Provincial, is a great blot on the Civil Service of the colony, and is probably without parallel in any Crown or constitutionally-governed dependency of the British Government; and I doubt if in any Civil Service in the world would such glaringly unequal and unjust treatment of the public servants be tolerated. Proposed Operations, 1888-89. —Four of the staff surveyors will still be employed in completing the triangulation of the pastoral country, and at the end of next season I expect that nearly the whole of it, excepting, perhaps, the country between the Ohau and upper part of the Hawea Lakes, will be completed. One surveyor will still be available to do the small amount of arrears remaining on hand, or such sections as may be taken up on the lands now thrown open for free selection, or that may be selected by the Midland Eailway Company out of the lands set apart for them. John H. Bakbe, Chief Surveyor.

OTAGO. Topographical and Trigonometrical Surveys. —Mr. District-Surveyor Strauchon has made good progress with Glenomaru District, but has not been able to finish this season. His return is 18,000 acres, at 2d. per acre. Rural Section Surveys. —The acreage is now more than double what it was last year, and the cost per acre less than one-half. This low rate and large area is owing to the inclusion of the Deepdell Eun, where an area of 43,745 acres was cut up into small grazing-runs and agricultural areas. Town Section Surrey. —Seventy-five allotments have been laid off in three localities, including the Township of Catlin, entirely in bush. Mining Surveys. —The area laid off this year (1,568 acres) is a little more than last year, and the cost per acre (Bs. 2d.) is a little under last year's average. Roads, Railways, and Water-races. —The length under this heading is nine miles, at a cost of £83 ss. lid. or £9 ss. Id. per mile. Mr. Assistant-Surveyor Calder has finished the field-work of a survey for the Otago Harbour Board and Public Works Department adjoining the railway-line between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, but, as his plans are not yet finished, I have not included the work in this return. Other Work. —Of the various items under this heading I may mention the completion by Mr. Langmuir of the standard survey of Lawrence, which will furnish valuable reference-points for future surveys. Mr. Strauchon has also done some good work in locating through and cross roads in the bush-country between the Nuggets and Catlin's Eiver. Survey Inspections. —During the year I have made twelve inspections of the field surveyors' work, visiting several of the surveyors more than once; and I inspected and reported on all the runs that fall in on March, 1889, with the exception of seven in Mr. W 7 ilmot's district that he reported on. I have also made several inspections of roads and bridges constructed out of the vote to open up Crown lands before sale, and have made ten field inspections within a few miles radius from Dunedin. District Offices. —Of the three district offices, Lawrence is under the charge of Mr. McLean, Queenstown under Mr. Adair; Naseby, having no resident draughtsman, is under the charge of the District Surveyor, Mr. D. Barron. Dunedin Office. —During the year the following changes took place : Mr. Cadet Bartlett resigned on the 31st December, Mr. W. P, Browne's services were terminated on the 29th February, and