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Triangclation. There was 204 square miles of country covered by minor triangulation during the year, at an average cost of slightly over ljd, an acre. No more was done than was actually needed to control the sectional surveys, and establish permanent reference points on to which all traverses are connected. Much of the existing triangulation which was done many years ago was made in numerous small groups, with independent bases having no uniform standard of measurement, and a permitted maximum of error in closures of 2 links per mile. The method then adopted is acknowledged to have been admirably adapted to the conditions then existing, when rapidly increasing settlement was widely scattered, and in parts sparse and isolated, on account of its being both speedy and economical. Subsequent minor triangulation has mainly been extensions of these groups, massing them, and each succeeding year it has become increasingly evident that a network of larger triangles is necessary to reduce the numerous variations in the different groups to a uniform standard of length—viz., the " Imperial," which is now used throughout the colony in all surveys; for with the modern appliances and refined methods of measurement now in vogue a greater precision is attained in the ordinary traverse work than exists in much of the triangulation. The importance of this work has been recognised by my predecessors, who unquestionably would have preferred to have had it preceded by a major triangulation, which would then have been in its proper order; btit, finding this unattainable, gradually, as opportunities arose, carried on the secondary as a governing work. At the present time about 6,000 square miles of country in the Wellington and Taranaki Districts have thus been covered with triangles of from 8- to 15-mile sides, and the angles observed mostly with 10 in. instruments. Prominent and suitably situated stations in the minor triangulation (already cleared of forest) having been used as stations in the secondary triangulation, has greatly facilitated the work, and enabled it to be carried on with greater ease and more economically than it would otherwise have been. It is hoped that sanction will be given to proceed with the final selection and measurement of the bases and the observation of a few triangles, which is all that remains to be done to complete this portion, which is about 200 miles in length, stretching from Cook Strait to New Plymouth; and also to continue this very important and much needed work in both Islands. TOPOGRAPHICAL. Ordinary surveys of, this nature have been chiefly confined to the Otago and Westland Districts 106,300 acres and 217,860 acres respectively—the remaining 11,778 acres being in Hawke's Bay and Nelson. The large area in Westland was principally rough, unexplored, and unmapped forest country, with high barren mountain tops, and the surveyor reports that little if any of it is fit for settlement. Topographical Survey of Lands for Selection as " Unsubveyed." This is of a much more detailed character than the foregoing, involving as it does the careful location of road routes, at times by compass, at others by permanent theodolite traverse; the defining of the principal natural features so as to indicate suitable fencing-lines for boundaries ; ascertaining the character and capabilities of the land, and fixing values to the different parts. An area of 200,515 acres has been surveyed and mapped in this way, some of which has already been thrown open for selection, and the remainder will shortly be dejilt with in a similar manner. The pressure having been relieved by the very large extent of country prepared and thrown open of late years on these conditions, more surveyors will now be available for the more economical method of direct sectional survey than was possible when so many were engaged on this particular class of work. Rural and Suburban. The 407,724 acres returned as completed and mapped have been done at a cost of T74s. an acre. This is purely sectional work, the average area of the sections being 268 acres, a smaller average than in any year for the past ten, with one exception, which is satisfactory considering that we are now dealing largely with remote, wooded, and broken Crown lands where holdings need to be fairly large. On the other hand, there has been the subdivision of nine rural properties purchased under the Land for Settlements Act, with a total area of 88,000 acres, in which case the land is more suitable for comparatively small holdings. Of the total area, the Auckland District accounted for 117,503 acres; Wellington, 76,961 acres; and the remaining districts ranged from Taranaki, with 50,556 acres, to Southland, with 10,625 acres.