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Rural Surveys. —The total area surveyed under this heading for the year amounts to 17,016 acres, in ninety-four sections, at an average cost of 2'B6s. per acre. Much of this has been isolated spotting-surveys, practically all in bush country, and entailing a great deal of travelling. Village and Suburban. —District Surveyor Harrop surveyed 307 acres in Cobden and Blaketown. These include large reserves and small suburban sections. Town Surveys. —District Surveyor Wilson returns eight sections under this heading laid off in Hokitika and Greymouth, at a cost of £37 4s. Id. Surveys of isolated sections in these localities are always costly on account of deficiencies in old work. Gold-mining Surveys. —No work has been done by the staff under this heading. Roads. —Only 3f miles are returned under this heading, at an average cost of £18 per mile. Other Work. —The return shows a total of £508 ]2s. lOd. under this heading, the chief items being an engineering survey and estimates for the Runanga water-supply scheme, and inspection surveys by Mr. District Surveyor Wilson. Inspection Surveys. —Owing to the exigencies of settlement surveys, and the absence of the staff surveyors in Canterbury, not much has been done during the year under this heading, but the few inspections which have been made disclose generally satisfactory results. Office-work. —In the early part of the year the draughting staff xvas considerably reduced by transfers of experienced men to other districts, leaving the office very short-handed. This, however, was remedied later by the appointment of new men, which now enables the current work to be coped with, and a certain amount of arrears to be worked off. During the year 108 plans were received and examined, classified as folloxv: 35 Land Transfer, 20 statutory, 2 mining, and 51 relating to land settlement. 1,017 copies of plans were placed on the deeds—namely, on Crown leases 587 copies, and on Land Transfer titles 430 copies. Numerous plans were also compared with office records for the District Land Registrar. 24 tracings have been prepared for photo-lithography, representing 164,000 acres of land which has been thrown open for selection, 160,500 acres as pastoral runs, and 3,500 acres as settlements lands; 5 tracings from compilations have also been prepared, completing the southernmost portion of Westland and the balance of that class of work in this district; 187 tracings of survey data have been forwarded to the field staff, and 5 compilation maps completed. Numerous tracings and descriptions have been prepared for Gazette notice. Electoral maps were prepared for the Grey and Westland Returning Officers. The customary routine work of cross-indexing, recording, (fee, has been kept well up to date, and, in addition, a considerable number of plans and posters were mounted and renewed. Proposed Operations, 1912-13. —There are in band at present 12,132 acres of application surveys scattered from the north to the far south of Westland, and with current applications being dealt with at each Board meeting I anticipate a very busy year. For the best five months of the year I have had only one staff surveyor available, the others being absent on urgent surveys in Canterbury, with the consequence that arrears are piling up, and settlers are becoming rather restive in the matter of titles to their holdings, as the" want of these titles hampers them in any financial arrangements. I hope it may be found practicable to return Messrs. Harrop and Morison to this district as soon as possible, and also to provide another surveyor to take the place of Mr. Wilson, who has gone to England on extended leave, and thus enable me to push on with the urgent surveys required. Changes in Staff. —There has been a very considerable change in the personnel of the staff during the year. In January I succeeded Mr. G. H. M. McClure, who was transferred to Invercargill as Commissioner of Crown Lands and Chief Surveyor, and Mr. D. M. Calder, of the Dunedin Office, succeeded Mr. F. A. Thompson as Chief Draughtsman. Mr. A. Meharry, Crown Lands Ranger, resigned in February, and his place has been taken by Mr. G. Anderson. There have also been several changes in the draughting staff. In conclusion, I xvould tender the customary tribute to the officers of both the field and office staff for their hearty co-operation in the work of the Department. H. D. M. Haszard, Chief Surveyor.

CANTERBURY. Rural. —The total area surveyed under this heading for the year amounts to 82,078 acres, subdivided into 213 sections, of xvhich 21,240 acres, comprising the Mount Peel grazing-runs, is national-endowment land, xvhile the remainder represents the new settlements of Douglas, Scargill, Smithfield, Four Peaks, Sherwood Downs. Avenel, Timaunga, and Valverde. Much of it is good agricultural land, though a large proportion of Mount Peel, Four Peaks, and Sherwood Downs is pastoral country. The Valverde Settlement of 2,312 acres was surveyed by a contract surveyor, the remainder by the staff surveyors. Out of the above-mentioned total of 82,078 acres there was an area of 37,900 acres the plans of which were not completed, and, owing to this, an area of 44,178 acres only is able to be returned in Table I. Topographical. —Under this heading 46,570 acres are returned, being Pastoral Run 241 and Mount Peel grazing-runs. There is also a further area of 34,182 acres, the plans of xvhich are not yet completed, comprising Run 178. Acheron, and three of the largest sections in Sherwood Doxvns. Roads. —The seventeen miles returned under this heading consist of five miles of the Summit Road from Evan's Pass to Godley Head, near Lyttelton, executed by Mr. Allom ; and twelve miles of the Glynn Wye Roads, by Mr. Morison. Town and Gold-mining Surveys. —l have nothing to report under this heading. Land Transfer. —Work in this branch of the Department has continued to increase during the year, 458 plans having been checked and passed. I append hereto a schedule compiled by