REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO INQUIRE AND REPORT UPON THE CIVIL SERVICE OF NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 511, 9 July 1880, Page 2

REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION APPOINTED TO INQUIRE AND REPORT UPON THE CIVIL SERVICE OF NEW ZEALAND.

i (Continued,) [ The importance of this question was ' urged upon Parliament in the session of i 1878; and, in consequence of a resolution ' passed, instructions have since been given • by the Surveyor General to take great ! care.in laying off all road-lines, and this has to be done in accordance with certain general conditions as to grades, &c. To carry out these instructions in difficult country has involved much additional labor and expense, without immediate results being apparent; and the consequent tendency to ignore them, particularly in contract surveys, has been great, and in many cases irreslitible. It is true that in looking at, the mora recent maps a large number of road-lines are shown, but on making inquiries we find that they do not fulfil the necessary conditions; to render them suitable for construction. To such an extent hiis this occurred that it "will probably prove in many instances better to abandon the existing sectional surveys as useless and lay out proper roads, than to attempt to form those shown on the plans. In many of the land districts ,we are aware that the locally "applicable portions of the.Land Act require that sections shall not exceeda certain. maximum size, and this size is.one into which it is useless to subdivide poor; rough pastoral country with aay idea that the blocks will be bought separately. 1 in alteration of the law in this respect appears to us to-be necessary if wasteful expenditure is to be avoided. We also suggest, with a view of saving expense in completing arrears of "surveys, that when adjoining Owners each hold a considerable number'of sections the boundary-lines on which are altogether «uns'uitad 'for' fonoirig, a great saving might be made if authority were • given to merely lay off such dividing-line as the owners may jointly agree on; this being done on condition that the department'"will, theii be'relieved from the necessity for makingthe sectional, surveys.^-J--- : ;• l:: "''

: |hellepartment. will, it ii to be hoped, no longer ba lubjected to that outside

pressure to prepare for ule land,for which there is "only an ; Should this be so/ whole ;question can be dealt with on N aoiindi Wines tf-like principles; and we believe the result\will be that the largo annual.eipenVe of this department may be greatly reduced. During the prevalence of the eager speculative demand for land which till recently :exi»tedi.i i such'i.recommendationsi r ai.:;:we; now venture to make would have been useless. Now, however, that this feeling has subsided, we hope that a calm con-. 1 sideration r of the be'st'way of'dealihg'with" 1 the small portion that remains of good agricultural Grown lands which is at all likely to sell, will be possible. : ! While criticising so unfavorably th» > existing state of the ' surveys, we are,far fromy'wishing to throw discredit oil the officers of the department. We feel that they have had to work under , great, disadvantages, arising both from'' outside pressure and frbih the complicated nature of the land laws. _, We, have , confidence that, if the proper responsibility thrown upon them, they will willingly , and efficiently carry out refojms in the directions '■ffi i have ( in'dicSted : . n w&hrA w. ut : The .forciblybrought: before uts J by aii''iw evidence'taken' that the value of the remaining portion of the Crown estate has been greaSly"bver-esti-mated, Jn,t,hus placing before your Eicel; length the evils which arise fromW Unintelligent interpretation of the existing land.laws of|the colony,; we are mainly influenced'by a desire' to' draw attention to the fact that-little-or-no-reduction can be mads in. an expensive, staff till the evils themselves are put an end to with 'unflitfchirig -dotermination. .•'< I tyfwtmed. \)