The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5447, 11 September 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1878.

An ono of the results flowing naturally and ■necessarily from tho abolition of the provinces, the control and administration of ithe surveys wore taken over by the ■colony. What was termed a “ new sys•“•tem” was brought into operation about •eighteen months ago, and it has now been iuriforce for a sufficient time to render a •criticism upon its working a perfectly ■fair-and legitimate proceeding. To apply anything like a severe test to a system iimmediatolyupon its establishment, would ■obviously afford no criterion as to its value. Difficulties tiro incidental to the ■bringing about of a complete change in ;any Targe and important'department, but we are of opinion that tho time has now •come when it is necessary in tho public interest to draw attention to some of thy -more prominent features which have been

developed in. the system in some of the larger provincial districts. We have never been of those v.'ho found too much fault with the manner in which certain Provincial Governments conducted the business of their survey departments. In Wellington, and in Otago also, things were done under the old regime in a way such as would' satisfy the exigenciesand requirements of thehour, with, perhaps, a purpose of meeting the interests of those coming afterwards. In other provincial districts, owing to a variety of circumstances which wo need riot detail, things, unfortunately, did not go on so smoothly, and the grumblings and grievances continually heard soon reached the high tone of a public clamor. Then it came to pass that, Abolition being at hand, a universal system was introduced, and that obtaining for years past in Otago was selected as the most suitable. From the manner, however, in which it has of late been managed, it would appear that there are many screws loose in Hie new machinery, and that it requires considerable alterations and a different kind of supervision. In Canterbury, for instance, where perhaps the shoe would pinch more than elsewhere, owing to the enormous landed estate which that district possesses, and the negligent way in which surveys have been allowed to be in arrear, public opinion is so strong that, if under the first initiation of the new system people wore beaten with whips, they now feel that they are being chastised with scorpions. The administration of survey matters there is characterised as despotic fin the extreme, based upon no definite rule, and carried out without any reference to the adjustment' of conflicting interests. But from many parts complaints are rife, and they vary from large and important matters to those of comparatively small moment, so that it is difficult to know where to commence in endeavoring to deal with the question. The difficulties, in Canterbury especially, attending applications for the purchase of land, are very great, and the modus operand! shrouded with red tape and beset with inexplicable official evolutions ; and so unelastic is the routine by which the public are impeded in their movements when endeavoring to approach the officials of the Survey Department, that applicants are often compelled to wait for hours before they can even got an opportunity of making known their wants. The uninitiated, of course, or those of a retiring disposition, are thus put quite out of the running. It is a common subject of remark that if one goes to the Christchurch Land Office to investigate plans or records, it is necessary to devote the whole morning or afternoon, sometimes indeed the whole day, to what ought to be a very simple operation. There are, moreover, now rules of all pvssiblo kinds, besides fees chargeable for every single step in connection with searches and so on. For example, no copies of the maps are allowed to be made on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; up-country residents, it is needless to explain, greatly suffer in consequence. We believe that we are correct in stating that in the Survey Office, to which we now particularly allude, the degree of confusion is such that in several instances land has been sold twice over. Public feeling is-much concerned as to the way this important branch of the Lands Department is being allowed to hopelessly drift, and we hear that in Canterbury an official j inquiry into the working of the department would be hailed with considerable satisfaction. It is said that under the new system the arrears of surveys have not been reduced. Surveyors, the Surveyor - General’s Department states, cannot bo got to meet the exigencies of the work. But it has been said that this has partly been the result of the introduction of a new regulation, laying it down that only those professional men should be allowed to tender for Government contract surveys who had had at least five years under “an approved “system,”—this expression practically meaning tha Otago system. And furthermore, it is said that contracts are frequently lot without calling for tenders, the triangulation in Canterbury in several instances having been contracted for by private arrangement. Notwithstanding the large contracts that have lately been put in hand in that provincial district, the arrears of survey are, wo learn, enormous. A Parliamentary return of nnsurveyed lands, with date® of their sale and other particulars, would have some interest, as showing the real state of the departmental arrangements there. If such complaints as we now chronicle are the results of the peculiar “economy ” which is boasted of so loudly as the greatpolicy of the Government, and which was promised to be applied in largely reducing the expenditure on surveys, the weight of blatrie should bo put on the right shoulders, and not be allowed to rest upon the Departments,