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Mr. Cadet Wm. Calder resigned in Juno, to take effect on the 31st July current. From the detailed statement it will be seen that Mr. Skey, the Chief Draughtsman, with the assistance of Messrs. Browne, Wadie, Marsh, Stables, Calder, Bartlett, Morrison, Neill, and Manax, have, besides other incidental work, prepared and recorded 309 Crown grants and certificates of title, representing 24,100 acres ; 150 perpetual leases, in triplicate; 59 pastoral leases, in duplicate ; 42 deferred-payment licenses, in duplicate; 25 occupation licenses, in duplicate ; 20 mining leases, in duplicate ; 25 agricultural leases, in duplicate ;20 miscellaneous leases, in duplicate; 25 village special-settlement leases, in triplicate ; and 38 small grazing-run leases, in triplicate. Mr. Nicolson has the custody of all maps in the safe, furnishes data for surveys, receives applications for unsurveyed lands, and attends to the public. Mr. Wadie completed the topography of Otago, and recorded new surveys and subdivisions on run-maps, adjusted run areas, and keeps a record of road-improvements to open Crown lands. Mr. Fynmorc recorded 46 new and closed road-surveys on working-plans and road district and county maps, reported on 1G road matters, kept road records, and attended to the public in connection with road affairs. Mr. Thompson checked 162 staff surveyors' plans ;69 Land Transfer plans; 59 road-and railway-plans, in duplicate !; 20 agricultural leases, in duplicate ; and 6 mining leases, in duplicate. The accountant, Mr. Euncie, besides the correspondence and bookkeeping, recorded a prSeis of and indexed 3,477 letters received and sent, received, entered and numbered 284 plans, cheeked and tabulated the monthly survey and road reports, keeps and distributes stores, pays salaries and wages, despatches plans, parcels, and correspondence, and attends to all matters in connection with the office. Land Transfer Work. —Mr. Treseder examined and checked 75 applications, 966 transfers, 625 mortgages, 297 leases, 143 transmissions, 731 draft certificates, and put 1,462 plans on certificates of title, besides ordinary work as it occurred. Lithograj)hic Branch. —Mr. Morrison reduced and drew two plans for photolithographing and nineteen on transfer-paper. Mr. Bain printed therefrom 4,050 lithographs, besides printing protractors, circulars, forms, &c, and mounted during the year 426 maps. Proposed Operations. —Mr. Strauchon has still to complete the triangulation of Glenomaru District; and.l think it will be advisable to throw a few triangles eastward from Waikawa and Mokoreta Districts towards Tautuku Bay. The extension of the standard survey of the City of Dunedin is urgently required, as complications are frequently arising in connection with Land Transfer surveys owing to the want of standard points over a great part of the city. I therefore propose that Mr. District Surveyor Langmuir shall undertake this work during the coining summer. In the Dunedin oflice there is an accumulation of arrears in consequence of the extra work required in the revising of the property-tax maps. When these are completed it will take some months to bring the back work up to date. C. W. Adams, Chief Surveyor.

SOUTHLAND. Field-ivork. —The field-work during the year has been of a desultory character, the principal blocks for village special settlement, &c, purposes, having been laid off during the previous year. There have been completed during the year, under the head of rural and suburban surveys, 17 sections, containing 2,142 acres. Of these, 7 sections were sawmill areas and 10 were purchases. Ten sections were also laid off as special claims on mining-lease applications. The applications for these, for the most part, came in in a desultory way, and the work being necessarily more or less urgent, it was found much more convenient and desirable to get the surveys overtaken by private surveyors as they were needed, instead of moving either the staff surveyor from the blocks in hand or of attempting to let the work accumulate. It will be seen that, while the pawmill applications have fallen off as compared with last year, the number of mining applications has considerably increased. This is partly due, no doubt, to the prospects anticipated for the " Wellman " dredger and machinery of a similar kind that will be able, by the manipulation of large quantities, to make up for inferior quality in the case of the auriferous wash occurring in some of our river- and ocean-beaches. In regard to our staff surveyors, I have to state that Mr. Stauchon, whose district embraces part of the now extended Southland Land District, has been exclusively engaged ever since the extension in the Otago Land District. Mr. Hay also has during the year overtaken one or two special blocks in the Otago District, but has now returned, and is engaged with the subdivision of the Native reserves near Colac Bay. There are a number of Native reserves to subdivide in accordance with the decision of Mr. Mackay, J udge of the Native Land Court, and, as the most of these are bush-clad, the work of subdivision will take some considerable time. Mr. Hay's return for the year is exceptionally small, owing to the fact of his having done work in Otago, and to the additional fact that a bush block which he has in progress cannot be entered in the tabular column as completed, although the survey is in an advanced state. As already noticed, the sawmill applications have not been so numerous as during the previous year. The sawmill industry is flat, and doubtless there has been a good deal of over-production during the past, which overplus will require to be reduced ere the demand for fresh areas becomes very great. 1 need hardly say that the cost of surveys shown under the head of "Fee System " w T as borne exclusively by applicants, the survey-fees having been deposited in each case ere the surveys were undertaken. The work throughout the year has been of an exceptionally desultory and scattered character, no large blocks having been laid off in anticipation of settlement, as has been the case during previous years. The reason for this was that it was felt that a sufficient number of areas had been laid off for village settlement, &c, the lands already surveyed being apparently sufficient to meet the wants of small settlers for some time to come. The work for the coming year will consist largely of the subdivisional survey of a number of Native reserves, and of such sawmill, mining lease, and purchase applications as may come in. Doubtless some of the forests that have been denuded of sawmill timber, &c, may ultimately require to be subdivided, but I am not aware of any