c.—i.

Field-work (Inspections).—Seventeen field inspections have been made by Mr. District Surveyor L. Smith and James Hay. Mr. L. Smith has made eleven inspections in the Poverty Bay district, one of which (the Mangapoeke Block subdivisional survey) contained 45,290 acres, subdivided into eleven subdivisions ; and the remainder were inspections made by Mr. Hay of Land Transfer surveys in the Napier district. Generally the inspections show good work, but in some cases incorrect work has been disclosed, showing the necessity for inspections. Summary of Year's Operations.—During the year eight survey parties have been employed. Mr. Seay was employed surveying Native boundaries for the Urewera Commissioners, and the others surveyed 47,500 acres of minor triangulation, 53,529 acres of rural and suburban, 458 acres of town section surveys, 17,543 acres of Native Land Court surveys, and 43| miles of road surveys. A number of inspections and reports have also been made by the staff officers on Native blocks, and they have been employed on inspections of co-operative works, grading, &c. Authorised surveyors have surveyed 106,856 acres at the cost of the Native owners. Mr. Ryan has been employed surveying by contract the Native township at Waipiro, but delay in this survey was caused by a difficulty in arranging for portions of it under lease to Mr. J. N. Williams and others. There is nothing in the year's operations to call for any special mention. Proposed Operations for 1900-I.—The principal work for the coming year will be the survey and roading for settlement of Crown awards and estates purchased or taken by the Crown, extending the triangulations over portions of the district not yet minor-triangulated, and road surveys. Mr. Hay has now some ninety-eight miles of minor triangulation in hand, on completion of which he will be employed on field inspections. Messrs. Dalziell, Stevenson, and Roddick will be employed on settlement surveys. They have 26,250 acres in hand at the present time. Office-work. — Office-work in all branches shows a steady increase, 240 plans having been received, representing 24,507 acres and sixty-four miles of road. These plans have all been examined and recorded. 1,681 plans have been indorsed upon certificates of title, Court orders, leases, and Validation Court decrees, and 469 tracings made for the Land- and Income-tax Department. The Chief Draughtsman has had a large quantity of work to do in connection with co-operative roadworks, in which work he has been ably assisted by Mr. P. S. Eeaney. Eric C. Gold Smith, Chief Surveyor.

TAEANAKI. Triangulation and Topography.—The major triangulation of the district has been further delayed this year by more pressing work, but, whenever occasion offered, Mr. H. M. Skeet, District Surveyor, who has the work in hand, has been fixing stations along the seaward side of Mount Egmont. A large amount of subsidiary triangulation—66,2oo acres, costing £273 17s. 6d.—has, however, been done by Messrs. Bullard, Morpeth, and Sladden in connection with their sectional surveys. The latter, in addition to the 28,500 acres returned by him, has computed and sent in plans of 111,000 acres of triangulation covering work done by himself and Messrs. Murcott and Laing. The topographical survey of Mount Egmont has been practically completed, and the preparation of plans will be undertaken and finished during the winter months by Mr. Skeet, who also will have mounted a complete set of photographs in connection with this work. Rural and Suburban.—Under this heading will appear as completed 42,301 acres, in ninetyseven sections, at a cost of £3,606 Bs. Id., or l'7s. per acre. Some 10,000 acres of this, however, had been previously surveyed into 200-acre sections for the Whenuakura Special Settlement Association, consequently the work was merely readjustment into sections of larger area with very little road surveying, though a fair amount of ridge traversing had to be done for section boundaries. Town Section Surveys.—This work, executed by Mr. H. M. Skeet, District Surveyor, is the standard survey of Waitara Township, 827 acres, which includes the pegging of 640 quarter-acre sections and sixty sections of from 1 acre to 3 acres never previously marked on ground, also the standard survey of 260 acres of the Opunake Township. Roads, Railways, and Water-races.—Mr. Bullard, District Surveyor, has this year handed in plans of some 37J miles of road at cost of £450, or the very good average in a rough district of £l2 per mile. Other shorter lengths of road bring the total up to fifty-five miles and the average cost to £ll ss. 4d. per mile, one of the best items in the year's work. In addition to work handed in Mr. Frith has some twenty-five miles of road completed in the field and plans almost completed, but the wet weather, rough country, exploring and cutting out different trial grades will considerably increase the cost of this survey. ' Other work includes the general miscellany incidental to survey-work, and incorporated in it are several items of work done for other departments. Field-checks of survey-work have been made by myself and Messrs. Skeet and Skinner, the latter officer inspecting in the field several Land Transfer surveys. The usual bushfelling and grass-sowing areas have been surveyed in connection with the improved-farm settlements, whilst some twenty miles of road-exploration has also been charged. Field-work in Progress and proposed for Next Year. —There are several thousands of acres of land surveyed, but plans not completed to allow of entry in the present year's returns. Mr. H. M. Skeet will have topographical and trigonometrical survey of Mount Egmont to complete next season. In consequence of the growth of plantations and live hedges many of the trig, stations have become practically useless for sighting to or from ; it has therefore been decided to establish a series of standard traverses properly marked by iron tubes along some of the principal roads between Hawera and Opunake, in order to meet the requirements of the constantly increasing Land Transfer work in the southern end of the district. It is also proposed to make a standard

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