5

C.-lA

In conjunction with the Australian Boards, the Board conducted two examinations, in September, 1906, and in March last. At the September examination there were 20 candidates, and of these the following 7 passed: Messrs. K. M. Graham, W. Loudon, E. W. M. Lysons, P. W. G. Barlow, B. Cooper, W. Stewart, and A. W. Cheal. At the March examination there were 17 candidates, 6 of whom passed—viz., Messrs. Y. Booker, 0. N. Campbell, N. C. Kensington, C. A. Gordon, B. S. Sherratt, and G. H. Davis. Surveyors licensed in the colony now number 420. Departmental Changes. On the 26th June last Mr. J. W. A. Marchant resigned the positions held by him of SurveyorGeneral and Secretary for Crown Lands, aud retired on a well-merited pension after forty-one years' service. He entered the Department in 1865 as a draughtsman and surveyor, and by his energy, ability, and zealous devotion to duty rapidly passed through the grades of Deputy Inspector of Surveys of the Wellington and West Coast Districts, first Geodetical Surveyor for the colony, then Chief Surveyor and Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Wellington and Canterbury Districts, and, finally, on the Ist January, 1902, attained the position of head of the Department of Lands and Survey as Surveyor-General and Secretary for Crown Lands. Mr. Marchant always took an absorbing interest in the settlement of the country, one of his most prominent undertakings being the subdivision and settlement of the Cheviot Estate, tiie first of a long series of purchases of estates for close settlement, and which has proved so very successful. Scientific matters also engaged his attention, and in this connection it may be mentioned the part he took in the observations of the transit of Venus in December of 1882, when he had the gratification of finding his observations with those of some Other amateur astronomers in the colony being made use of byMr. E. J. Stone, the directing astronomer, and his assistants, in the final deductions. Mr. Marchant's retirement brought about the following promotions in the survey branch of the Department: T. Humphries, Chief Surveyor and Commissioner of Crown Lands, Canterbury, to be Surveyor-General; E. C. Gold Smith, Chief Surveyor, Hawke's Bay, to be Chief Surveyor, Canterbury; 11. Trent, Chief Surveyor, Marlborough, to be Chief Surveyor, Napier; F. Stephenson Smith, District Surveyor, Gisborne, to be Chief Surveyor, Marlborough; T. N. Brodrick. District Surveyor, Timaru, to be District Surveyor and Land Officer, Gisborne. Other changes were: W. D. B. Murray, of Nelson, to be Chief Draughtsman, Head Office; T. M. Grant, Chief Draughtsman, Hokitika, to be Chief Draughtsman, Nelson; E. H. Wilmot, District Surveyor, Otago, to be Chief Draughtsman, Hokitika. Three cadets —viz., W. C. Wall, T. A. Johnston, and W. Stewart—who passed at the March, 1906, examinations of the Board of Examiners for surveyors, were promoted to the grade of Assistant Surveyors. The following officers resigned their positions during the year: Assistant Surveyors E. A. Marchant, J. Dewar, and W. C. McAlister; and J. Mouat, Draughtsman and Surveyor. The last-mentioned three left to take appointments on the survey staff of the Federated Malay States Government. Mr. W. D. B. Murray, Chief Draughtsman at the Head Office, reports as follows:— The regular work of the draughting staff, such as office maps aud records and the usual routine work, has been kept up to date. The county tenure maps for general use have been regularly altered to keep pace with the constant changes in tenure and in other ways. New ones have been mad< and published of the Cook and Wuiroa Counties, and the East Taupo and Mackenzie County maps are with the Government Printer for reproduction by photo-lithography. Six others—viz., Buller, Inangahua, Westland, Amuri, Opotiki, and Cheviot—still remain to be done, and will be published as soon as the information is received from the district offices. The standard 8-mile map of New Zealand, from which lithos. are reproduced, has been brought up to -date for the purpose of preparing a new general map of the counties on a scale of 16 miles to an inch. The largest work of the year, which severely taxed the strength of the staff, and which was of great magnitude, was the preparation of large scale maps of the whole of New Zealand, with the population as given by the last census shown in detail on them, for the use of the Representation Commission, ;md the subsequent compilation of 241 electoral maps, showing the boundaries of the new electorates as finally determined by the Commission—one full set for the Chief Electoral Officer, and two sets for the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, as required by the Electoral Act: also 76 descriptions of boundaries were written in connection with the work.