THE SURVEYS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5489, 30 October 1878, Page 3

THE SURVEYS.

It is with much pleasure that wo draw attention to the following circular letter addressed to the various chief surveyors throughout the colony. People living in up-country districts will hail this letter with much satisfaction. Complaint has been made in thepist that the surveyors engaged in section survey previous to the sale or settlement of the laud were in the habit of laying out lines of road very much afc haphazard. They had often no instruments for grading the road-lines, and their main object being to survey land for settlement, other considerations were to a great extent sacrificed by them to this. The straighter the road lines the more attractive tho maps of the land when surveyed appeared to be. If a straight liae involved steep, sometimes impracticable roads, until long after the sale this fact remained undiscovered. Many mistakes in the laying off of road lines over rough country generally occur, but the system introduced by this letter will tend to lessen the number very considerably. Only those who have experienced the difficulty of obtaining rights-of-way over a country partly enclosed, but with no legally defined road through it, know the difficulties which beset the path of, tho local authorities. • Every small farmer conceives that ho has a perfect right to compensation. If he has lived twenty years without an outlet for hia produce, as soon as there is a prospect of a road running through his property, he begins to banker after a little compensation. He sometimes forgets that the benefit he is receiving from the road, may more than compensate him for the injury done to his property or his paddocks. Mr. Beefcham pressed this matter very persistently upon the attention of the Government, and to his exertions the thanks of the country settlers are due for having succeeded in placing the survey of roads within a county to some extent under the control of tho local authority. The circular is as follows; “General Survey Office, Wellington, October* 1878. —Sir fc —l have the honor to request that* in addition to the instructions that roads are to be selected and laid out bo as to be practicable and serviceable, you will cause main through roads to bo surveyed so that the gradient shall not bo steeper than 1 in 15, and occupation roads not steeper than 1 in 10 when formed. "Where the surveyor finds it impossible owing to tho nature of the country to carry out these instructions, he will report to you what gradient he has been able to obtain. X have also to request that the surveyor will consult the county council oi their engineer as to the best sites for bridges over rivers, and as to tho best line for main roads. Should the surveyor differ in opinion from the county engineer, ho will either lay out or reserve what he considers best, a? well as that which the county engineer thinks most suitable, or report the circumstances to you for advice.—l have, &c , James MoKerrow, Assistant “■