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APPENDICES.

APPENDIX No. 1. EXTBACTS FEOM THE EEPOETS OF THE CHIEF SUBVEYOBS IN CHAEGE OF SETTLEMENT OPEEATIONS.

AUCKLAND. Topographical Survey. —An area of 320,000 acres is included under this heading, costing £170 16s. 4d., or a mean of 0-12 d. per acre. Of this amount some 295,000 acres covers the area of the topographical survey lately made by Mr. L. Cussen over Mounts Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and their vicinity. It has been long felt that, in the interests of geology and also in the interests of the increasing number of tourists visiting the colony, it was expedient to complete this work, which had been long in contemplation, but delayed owing to press of other surveys. However, advantage was taken at last of Mr. Cussen's presence in the neighbourhood, whilst inspecting extensive landpurchase surveys, to carry out this important work, and which, with his usual energy, he has successfully completed, together with the elaborate report, diagrams, and sketches I have already transmitted to you. The balance of the topographical area was completed by Mr. H. D. M. Haszard for settlement purposes, and for the purpose of throwing open the land as " unsurveyed." Triangulation. —An area of 529,864 acres, costing £893 os. 10d., or a mean of 0-4 d. per acre, has been completed under this heading, Of this work, some 350,000 acres were done under contract by Mr. P. E. Oheal, for the purpose of covering the large extent of Native land lying between lower Waikato and the Thames, with a series of fixed points within which the numerous land-purchase and Native surveys undertaken in the Piako Block for Native Land Court purposes could be connected. Mr. Cheal had to contend with a good deal of Native opposition owing to tribal jealousies, and had to submit to the pulling-down of trig, stations just as they were erected, and then had to await their re-erection before obtaining his angles. The close between the Waikato and Thames series is not as good as it should be, but some allowance must in fairness be made for an error known to exist in the original triangulation, which extends to the Thames along the coast-line, and that by necessarily not very well conditioned triangles at the entrance of the Thames Eiver. The balance of area has been contributed by Messrs. Hardy, Martin, and Haszard, who had to break down for settlement-survey purposes, and Mr. Wm. Cussen in the Taupo district, by Eay Trace for Native Land Court and Native landpurchase purposes. Rural Section*. —A very considerable area has been surveyed and subdivided during the past year, having a grand total of 95,597 acres, costing £6,668 6s. 6d., or a mean of T39s. per acre, which is considerably below the mean cost per acre of last year's return. Of the grand total just given, some 731 sections, with an area of 73,308 acres, have been executed by the staff at a cost of £5,202 os. 10d., or a mean of l-425. per acre; and the balance of sixty sections totalling to 22,289 acres, and costing £1,466 ss. Bd., or a mean of l-31s. per acre, has been undertaken by authorised surveyors, and paid for at schedule rates either by Government direct or by the surveyfees being deposited by applicants for " unsurveyed " lauds opened by Proclamation. Of this latter class of surveys, the surveyors employed are nominated by the persons making the applications, and are always accepted provided the surveyor so nominated is on the duly-authorised list furnished by the Surveyor-General. It may be as well to mention that in the area of schedule-surveys are included five sections under the homestead clauses of the Land Act, containing 985 acres, and costing £102. Taking the total number of sections and areas surveyed for settlement purposes during , the past year, we find that the 731 sections have an average of less than 121 acres each, and that in no case has the area of any one section exceeded 2,000 acres, and that as a matter of fact only four sections of such an area have been surveyed or applied for during the past year. The return of work would have been larger still had not severe illness of Messrs. Harington and T. L. Humphries and the death of Mr. Edgecumbe deprived us of the services of no less than three staff-surveyors. Town Sections. —There have been surveyed under this heading during the past year 199 lots, containing an area of 194 acres, and costing £266 12s. 7d. They comprise the re-survey of the Town of Eussell —a costly and difficult undertaking owing to the erratic manner in which the Crown-granted holdings have been fenced in, and the absence of old and reliable marks. Mr. Wheeler carried out this work in a skilful and intelligent manner, and we have been enabled, after many years of " groping," to produce a reliable land-tenure map of the township. The other town surveys comprise goldfields Town of Kuaotunu, by Mr. J. I. Philips; and Village of Paengaroa, by Mr. J. Baber, jun. ; and a village site near Maungakaramea wharf, by Mr. C. Stevens. It may not be inappropriate to mention in this place that, between his periods of severe illness and almost up to the day of his death, the late Mr. F. H. Edgecumbe was engaged upon the revision of the standard survey of the City of Auckland and suburbs and the street alignment, which, with the assistance of Mr. Warner,'jun., an authorised surveyor, he had nearly brought to a successful close in fact quite so, as far as the standard survey is concerned. Mr. Edgecumbe, one may truly say, died in harness, and the department has by his death been deprived of an exemplary and painstaking officer, of one whose loss is severely felt, Mr. Warner is now entering up the com-