NATIVE LAND.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1669, 8 February 1913, Page 13

NATIVE LAND.

-. e— —, ' , SURVEYING WORK. A recent etatetaient by, the Hon. W. H. Horries that. the . eettlement of Native lands had been eoniewhat retarded owing to a difficulty in securing tho 1 services of a sufficient number of surveyors has been adversely criticised by the Auckland "Herald," which maintains that there is no laok of surveyors. Mr. Horries is at present absent from Wellington, but tho Hon. W. F. Massey, Prlino Minister and. Minister for Lands, was questioned as to the general position in regard to surveyors. Mr. Massey stated that there had undoubtedly been a shortage of surveyors, but that ■ the position was now rolieved, so far as the Departments under his control wero concerned. A considerable amount of surveying had been let by piece-work, with, he believed, satisfactory results. The Lands Department was able to secure the services of enough surveyors to do all tho work that it was possible to do at the present time. The surveying of'large blocks, Mr. Massey mentioned, generally commences in the late spring or early summer, in- order that advantage may to taken of the fine weather. It is just at these periods that surveyors are most in request for private work, 60 that the demand for their services at 6uch times i 3 keen. Unfavourable comparisons are 'sometimes drawn between the rates paid by the Government to its staff surveyors and those paid to surveyors in private employ, but it has to bo remembered that Government surveyors are in receipt of a regular salary, wliilo those ehgnged in private work are sometimes casually employed. When ho came into office, Mr. Massey raised the salaries of the staff surveyors in tho employ of the Lands Department.