C. —la.

Roads. —Twenty-three miles of road survey carried out comprised mostly work necessitated by the activities of the Main Highways Board and the Housing Department. Approximately 1 mile of road was redefined for this Department in the administration of Crown lands. Inspection Surveys.—Only one inspection was made during the year, and this revealed that further inspections were desirable. They could not be made, however, owing to shortage of staff. Other Work. —Survey maintenance rendered necessary by roading operations of County Councils and Main Highways Board was carried out, and necessitated the insertion of thirty-two covers and nine plates to protect existing major survey marks. One trigonometrical station was moved owing to Public Works Department's ground operations, and was replaced in a convenient position nearby and co-ordinated to the existing trigonometrical net. Surveys for the Police Department in respect to accident cases, preliminary level and building fixation work for the housing scheme, and levels for drainage of Crown properties comprised the balance of this work. Proposed Field Operations, 1939-40. —(a) Precise Levelling : There still remains some 85 miles of this work to be completed, and it is hoped to complete it in the coming year, although the necessity of employing Mr. Cox on other urgent survey work greatly retards progress. (b) Rural Surveys : There are some 5,221|- acres of this class of survey in view, mostly in connection with the re-allotting of uneconomic areas in settlements. (c) Town Surveys : A total of 107f acres, comprised mainly of subdivision required for the housing scheme. (d) Standard Maintenance : It is anticipated that a further considerable amount of this class of work will be necessary during the coming year, as in the past. (e) Roads, &c. : The 109f miles of road survey in view consists almost wholly of deviations, &c., carried out or being carried out by the Main Highways Board, and includes 36 miles of traverse in connection with the Public Works Department irrigation work. (/) Inspections : As opportunity permits, it is intended to inspect the work of at least each surveyor in private practice in this district. Office-work (General). Eighty-three plans were examined and passed, compared with ninety for the year 1937-38, and 440 diagrams were placed on instruments of title, leases, &c. Increases are recorded in the number of tracings and photostats, these being 1,748 and 1,357, as compared with 1,602 and 1,263 respectively for the previous year. Forty-four Town Schemes were approved, being an increase of 1, while 2 were not recommended. Fifty working-plans were plotted and drawn, as also were seventeen new 20-chain record maps and three further 20-chain maps of the tacheometrical contour survey being carried out by the Public Works Department for irrigation purposes. Four new record maps of townships were compiled. Revisions for lithographic purposes covered the Christchurch 20-chain streets map and index thereto, three of the 40-chain survey-district maps, and two county maps (40 chain). The work for the Valuation Department comprised one hundred standard-size sheet tracings, while the draughting-work for the State Forest Service has been executed as required by the District Office. A considerable proportion of the time of the draughting staff has been taken up with work incidental to the offers of land for the housing scheme, there being 325 offers investigated, searched, inspected, and reported on during the year. Eighty-six offers, comprising 122 acres 1 rood 1-4 perches, and estimated to produce 503 sections, were accepted in the period under review. In general, the recording, indexing, and routine office-work has been carried out and kept up to date. Land Transfer Branch. A slight decrease is shown in the returns of this branch, plans approved being 240, as against 268 for the previous year, and diagrams placed on instruments of title 2,486, compared with 2,614. Recording and indexing have been kept up to date, and 73 tracings were prepared for the Valuation Department. Staff Changes. Mr. T. P. Gibson, Survey Cadet under Mr. A. D. McLaren, left for England in March, 1938, on extended leave, and was replaced in July by Mr. T. E. Miles. Messrs. R. 0. G. Magnus and R. H. W. Rainey, Draughting Cadets, left the Department during the year, the former resigning as from 23rd December and the latter transferring to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as from the end of July. Mr. O. H. Wilton, Draughtsman, left the district at the end of July on transfer to Auckland. Four Draughting Cadets commenced duty in this district during the past twelve months, Mr. R. B. Spear and Mr. I. D. Maffey on transfer from New Plymouth and Blenheim respectively, and two new appointees, Messrs. D. C. Morse and D. B. McC. Rainey. Messrs. B. Osborne and J. Crawshaw were employed during the year as temporary draughting assistants, but Mr. Crawshaw was transferred at the end of February to the Housing Department, Wellington. General. I have pleasure in recording that Mr. J. A. Whitcombe was successful in obtaining his first-class certificate in draughting and Mr. O. H. Wilton his second-class certificate in computing.

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