A—i

and was for several years engaged in the survey of large blocks of land under purchase by the Government, particularly in the Kaipara district, the greater part of which was originally surveyed by him. At that time there were only four white families living in that extensive district, which now contains a white population of about fifteen thousand. The surveyors attached to the department at that time were Mr. A. Sinclair, the late Sir Malcolm Fraser, Mr. Stewart (the two latter in Wellington), and Mr. Percy Smith, who were subsequently reinforced by Messrs. C. Godfrey Knight and the late G. W. Williams, both of whom were Mr. Smith's cadets. In 1863 the General Survey Department, under Major Heaphy, V.C., was established in Auckland to undertake the surveys of confiscated lands for the settlement of military settlers, and Mr. Smith was transferred to that department as District Surveyor of the Lower Waikato district. This was the period of the war in the Auckland District, and many of the surveyors ran great risks of losing their lives through the Natives; indeed, Mr. Richard Todd, F.R.G.S., was caught by them and killed near Pirongia. In 1865 Mr. Smith was transferred back to the Taranaki district, and had charge of all the surveys for military settlement north of New Plymouth, whilst Mr. C. W. Hursthouse was distric; Surveyor to the south of the town. These surveys were carried out at great risk, owing to parties of Hauhaus prowling about the country, and all the work was done under covering parties, usually composed of friendly Natives. In 1867, in conjunction with Messrs. G. W. Williams, C. A. Wray, and F. Wilson, Mr. Smith made the survey of the whole of the military settlement occupying the country from the Waitotara to the Waingongoro Rivers, extending inland from two to six miles, a work which was a very dangerous one, owing to the numbers of armed Natives in the district who constantly attempted to cut the survey parties off, and often nearly succeeded. Many a time had the parties to withdraw under fire from the Hauhaus. Her Majesty's 18th Regiment (Royal Irish) furnished covering parties at first, subsequently the colonial forces under the late Colonel McDonnell. The survey camps were always pitched close to the redoubts for safety, and no man ever went a few hundred yards from camp without being fully armed. In all this work, the survey parties really peformed the work of outlying pickets to the military forces, and carried on their work with more danger to life than in many a fight with the enemy. In 1868-69 Mr. Smith made a trigonometrical survey of the Chatham Islands, and corrected a serious error in the longitude of the group, accepted up to that time. With Messrs. H. Ford and F. Wilson he also surveyed the whole group for the purposes of the Native Land Court. It was whilst he was at the Chathams that Te Kooti escaped from the island and commenced his career of bloodshed in New Zealand. After making some surveys of roads and Native reserves in the Taranaki District, Mr. Smith joined the Inspector of Surveys Department at Auckland, under Mr. Theo. Heale in 1870, and from that time till early in 1877 was engaged in extending the major triangulation over a considerable portion of that province, and extending the work to Hawke's Bay and Northern Wellington. Mr. Smith personally observed a polygonal series of triangles extending from Mangonui in the north to the Manawatu Gorge in the south, with the exception of two small breaks, besides extending the work on the flanks to near the base of Ruapehu on the west to near Gisborne on the east. The prosecution of this work involved the careful measurement of three base lines, besides bases of verification and the accompanying astronomical work. In 1871 the now well-known steel band was first used for the measurement near the present town of Hastings (then non-existent);. Messrs. Theo. Heale and Horace Baker being also associated with Mr. Smith in the measurement. The opposition offered by the Natives to this work, then new to them, was often very serious and caused vexatious delays, but patience in the end overcame every case that arose. The conclusion of the war in the early seventies had left a bitter feeling against the white man, which was very noticeable in dealing with every question at that time, which together with the great difficulty of transport, rendered this a very arduous work. The abolition of the provinces took place in 1876, when the late Mr. J. T. Thomson, F.R.G.S., organized the different provincial and General Government Survey staffs into one department. Mr. Smith was appointed under him as First Geodesical Surveyor, but very shortly afterwards, on the 25th January, 1877, relinquished this office to become Chief Surveyor of the Auckland District. On the retirement of Mr. J. T. Thomson and the appointment of Mr. James McKerrow to the office of Surveyor-General, Mr. Smith, as the senior officer, became Assistant Sur-veyor-General on the 26th September, 1882, but continued to carry out the duties of Chief Surveyor of the Auckland District, to which was subsequently added, on the Ist March, 1888, those of Commissioner of Crown Lands for the same district. In 1886 Mr. Smith, with the assistance of Mr. B. C. Gold Smith (then District Surveyor of Tauranga), and Assistant Surveyor E. F. Adams made a complete topographical survey of the site of the eruption of Tarawera (on the 10th June, 1886), the reports, maps, illustrations, &c, connected with which was published by the Government in a volume entitled " The Eruption of Tarawera." In 1887 Mr. Smith was sent by the Government, together with the.late Captain Fairchild, to take possession of the Kermadec Islands, which have since that date been a part of the colony of New Zealand. On the relinquishment by Mr. James McKerrow, F.R.A.S., of the position of SurveyorGeneral to take up the duties of Chairman of the Board of Railway Commissioners, Mr. Smith, on the recommendation of the then Minister of Lands (Hon. G. F. Richardson), was appointed on the 29th January, 1889, by the Governor, Surveyor-General and Secretary for Crown Lands and Mines, which office he held until the 31st October, 1900, at which date he retired from the public service after forty-five years' service. During Mr. Smith's official career and outside his survey duties, he occupied the position of

xxiii