13

C—la

Office-ivork. —But for the occasional assistance I was enabled to receive when any of the field surveyors happened to be in, more of the office-work would have had to fall into arrear ; as it is, many of the topographical, Crown grant, &c, maps have still to be prepared or else are awaiting completion. The Chief Draughtsman (Mr. Clarke) was appointed Receiver of Land Revenue during the past year, and much of his time—formerly devoted to survey record-maps—is now taken up with Land Department business. General Remarks. —The work done for other departments is very considerable during the past year. In the case of the field staff surveyors it amounts to £850 9s. 2d., and in the case of the office staff to £416 11s.; total, £1,267 os. 2d., which reduces the cost of the Westland Survey Department to about one-half of what it otherwise would have been. Work in Hand and Proposed Operations. —The settlement-surveys in arrear amount to 172 sections, comprising 16,557 acres. As these are dispersed throughout the district, the surveys of them will, excepting in special pressing cases, be left over until a surveyor in connection with some other survey work happens to visit the district they are situated in. Apart from these settlemgntsurveys, work is certain to increase largely during the year, owing to the assured prosecution of the Midland Railway-works, which must of necessity conduce to settlement. Many of the applicants for lands within the reserved area, who, in consequence of the long stoppage of the company's works, were led to expect that Government itself would again resume the disposal of these lands, are prepared now to deal with the company about the lands they are anxious to purchase or lease. Besides the settlement-surveys, there are the mining and road surveys, which will keep the few Westland surveyors fully employed. I hope I shall be able to overtake the arrears in office-work during the ensuing year. Gekhabd Muellee, Chief Surveyor.

CANTEEBUEY. Minor Triangulation and Topography. —This year, as in the previous one, four out of the five staff surveyors have been engaged in this work. Mr. Welch is completing the triangulation to connect with the Nelson trig, work, at the head of Lake Sumner, then crossing the Dampier Eange, and working down to close with Mr. Brodrick's triangulation of the Upper Waimakariri Valley. Mr. Welch reports: "I exceedingly regret that the closures for distance are not as satisfactory as I could wish, although the bearings come out fairly well. All the distances come out less, both with the base-lines at Lake Taylor and also with the Nelson work, the error being all one way. I have found one cause of error in the instrument: the vertical arc is slightly out, and does not describe a vertical line at right angles to the plane of the instrument. Many adjacent trigs having a great difference in their heights will account, I believe, for the greater part of the discrepancy." The closing error is 22 links per mile with the Nelson work, and l-3 links per mile with Mr. Brodrick'a triangulation, which, though not showing such good results as Mr. Welch's past season's work, is satisfactory, considering the nature of the country triangulated, the average heights of the stations being 4,759 ft., the highest 6,000 ft. Mr. Brodrick completed the triangulation of the Great Tasman and Hooker Valleys up to the base of Mount Cook, on both sides. Under my directions, he has made a complete survey of the Mueller and Hooker Glaciers, has ascertained the rate at which they are moving, and made numerous observations, which will be of much value to scientific men when visiting this magnificent and most interesting portion of the Southern Alps.:': When at the Hermitage with the Classification Commissioners, Mr. Brodrick and I went nearly to the head of the Hooker Glacier; but, having no camping equipment with us, we had to return without getting to the highest attainable point. I instructed him to try and get to the top of a comparatively low saddle we discovered near the head of this glacier, but when he returned, later in the season, to complete the survey of it, he could not reach the saddle because of the huge crevasses, which were then uncrossable without special appliances, all the natural snow bridges having melted away. From the surveys made of the Mueller and Hooker Glaciers by Mr. Brodrick, and of the Great Tasman Glacier by Dr. E. yon Lendenfeld, I hope to be able to construct a highly-interesting map, showing the topography of the district, the courses of the above glaciers to their terminal faces, with the positions of the lateral moraines, and also of the largest overhanging glaciers, and the courses which the principal avalanches take as they are gradually forced over the precipitous rock on which they are suspended : this map to be exhibited at the Dunedin Exhibition next summer, where, I am sure, it will attract considerable attention and lead many people to visit probably some of the grandest scenery to be found in the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. Hay has completed the triangulation and the topography of the Mount Hutt, Mount Somers, and Palmer Eanges, embracing a very large area of some of the roughest sheep-country in Canterbury. The completion of the topography of this block of country in time for the lithographs prepared for the late sale of runs was of the greatest assistance in getting these plans out. His trigonometrical plans are not yet finished, but he reports that very fair closures have been obtained with the previous work. Mr. McClure has also completed a large area of topographical survey at the head of the Havelock and Clyde Branches of the Eangitata River, also at the sources of the Potts, Ashburton, and Cameron Rivers, as far as the southernmost branch of the Rakaia.. He says, '' I was impeded in the earlier part of the season by bad weather, and during November there was fully 2ft. of snow round the camp. In consequence of the previous severe winter and the high altitude of the country, some of it being over 9,000 ft., among the glaciers, there was a certain amount of danger attached

* See Brodrick's report, Appendix No. 4.