The Globe. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 18, 20 June 1874, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1874.

Mil Montcjomeey on Thursday night stated in tlio Council, that for the future contract surveyors must understand, that the privilege of buying laud for private parties must bo given up. This is a step in the right direction, though we fancy it will be very hard to prevent any contract surveyor who may chanco to come across a choice section, giving that information to his former employers, which will enable them to be first in the market, and thereby earning his fee as before. It has always seemed to us an anomaly that whilst the permanent staff of surveyors may not buy land for private speculators, contract surveyors are at at full liberty to do so, and thereby to augment their income to a very large degree, and to render their position preferable to that of the permanent members. All through the colonies the vice of land jobbing is prevalent, and these contract surveyors arc merely getting their share of the plunder, and we cannot blame them for it. If those gentlemen who are already on contract work for the Government, are really competent men (and we cannot see why they should have been employed if they are not), why should not Mr Montgomery have them added to the

permanent staff? Perhaps they would not accept the situation if offered, in which case it would go far to prove that the contract surveying must be considerably the most paying game. Complaints arise from every side as to the inaccuracy of the survoys already made, and tho impossibility of gotting soctions that have been recently bought, surveyed. We were informed only a short time ago that there are some sections bought no less than twelve years ago, and yet it is impossible with the present she of the staff to get them surveyed. That inaccuracy in this department must end in future litigation, and a fine harvest for the members of the legal profession, there can bo no doubt, and that such will be the case, wo fear wo must be prepared to find. The reckless way too, in which unscrupulous people tamper with survey works, must also be taken into consideration. Section pegs are knocked out in some places by scores, we might almost say hundreds ; section or road marks are filled up or ploughed over, and everything done that is possible, to prevent the bona fide land purchaser from obtaining information as to whether the land is purchased or not. We are aware of numerous cases in which a would-be buyer has been compolled from the survey marks being obliterated, to call in a surveyor and fee him handsomely to lay off tho section he requires. We can only trust that under the improvements to be mado by the Government in the survey department, we may be able to show a little bolder front to tho obstructive element in tho country, than wo can at present.