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No. 29. New Zealand, Dominions No. 296. Sir,— Downing Street, 14th. May, 1927. I have the honour to state, for the information of His Majesty's Government in New Zealand, that arrangements are being made with a view to convening in this country a Conference of Surveyors representative of the Survey Departments of the Dominions, colonies, protectorates, and mandated territories. 2. It is proposed that such a conference should be held in this country in the two weeks preceding the International Geographical Congress, which, as indicated in my despatch, Dominions No. 295, of the 14th May, will meet at Cambridge on the 18th July, 1928, and it is anticipated that the juxtaposition of the two meetings may facilitate arrangements for suitable representatives to attend both the Conference of Surveyors and the International Geographical Congress. 3. The Conference, which should be understood to include hydrographers also, will afford to surveyors from overseas,, as will be seen from the provisional agenda enclosed, an opportunity of becoming fully acquainted with the methods employed by the Departments in this country dealing with land and ocean surveys, and of an exchange of views on many general and technical matters of common interest to surveyors. 4. I should be glad to be informed in due course whether His Majesty's Government in New Zealand desire to nominate representatives to attend the Conference. I have, &c., L. S. AMERY. Governor-General His Excellency General Sir C. Fergusson, Bart., LL TV. G.C.M.G., K.C.8., D.5.0., M.V.0., &c.

Enclosure. Proposed Programme—July, 1928. (Note. —The individual items and precise sequence of this suggested programme will be subject to such further modification as the departments concerned may find necessary.) First Week. First Day—War Office —Lecture, " Maps and Surveys for Imperial Defence." Lecture, " Mapping from Air Photographs." Visits by parties to (a) photogrammetric plotter and other air photo apparatus; (6) Geographical Section, general staff maps and draughtsmen ; (c) reproduction. Second Day.—War Office: Lecture, " Boundaries, Boundary Commissions, Maps and Triangulations." National Physical Laboratory : Standardizing and testing apparatus. Third Day.—Admiralty: Lecture, " Charts " ; visits by parties to (a) old surveys, (b) instruments, (c) organization. Afternoon : Cricklewood —Admiralty Chart Establishment. Fourth Day.—Admiralty: Admiralty Research Laboratory. Greenwich: Royal Observatory. Greenwich. Fifth Day.—Geological Museum : Geological maps and surveys. Royal Geographical Society : Visits to the Society's premises and collections. Sixth Day.—Discussion of exchange of material, complimentary issues, &c. ; two-three hours for discussion of other subjects as notified. Arrive Southampton on Sunday evening. Second Week. First and Second Days.—Ordnance Survey Office. —Lectures on various subjects by officers of the Ordnance Survey, including the following : History, organization, and work of the Ordnance Survey ; relations of Ordnance Survey with the public ; methods and processes used on the Ordnance Survey ; the new geodetic levelling. Arrangements will also be made for visits by parties to all the departments, in which the following work will be seen : Drawing, large and small scale ; photo-reproduction ; proving and printing ; mounting and folding ; letterpress and process work ; Trigonometrical Division—records, standards ; manuscript-store, map-stores, &c. Third Day.—Ordnance Survey : Lecture, " The Geodesy of the British Is'es " (Sir Charles Close) ; discussions —Empire Survey Journal and other subjects. Fourth Day.—Spithead: Admiralty survey ship ; sounding, fixing, wire measurement gear, &c. Return London. Fifth Day.—Natural Science Museum (in room borrowed, if possible, from Science College) : Historical instruments ; exhibition of survey instruments and methods—air survey companies ; Barr and Stroud ; Watts ; Cooke, Troughton, and Simms ; Casella ; Ottway ; Negretti and Zambra, &c. Sixth Day.—War Office : Discussions.

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