D.—No. 20.

either within or abutting on to Provincial surveys ; the system adopted has been that of boundary traverse only to magnetic meridian. Triangulation has been carried over a small part only of the Province, and even in these parts does not seem to have been made (at all events not systematically) the basis of the topographical surveys ; nevertheless, the district being compact, and some supervision having been exercised over the surveyors in the field, and the whole tied by numerous road-lines, the maps seem to have closed together pretty well, and no difficulties or disputes concerning past work need be apprehended. The amount charged, however, against the Native Lands Court funds for supervising these surveys is very heavy ; and since the result has been simply to keep the surveys of the Province in fair order, and nothing whatever, not even a compilation of the Native land claims surveys, has been supplied to the Colony, —since, also, the services rendered, putting aside the triangulation to which I shall presently refer, have been performed by Provincial officers not specially employed or paid for these particular services, but taking them up occasionally as circumstances permitted, and in the midst of other duties, — it appears to me that the claim is open to question as a matter of right, and, if admitted, can only be considered in the light of a compromise. The triangulation was made under a contract entered into with Mr. M. FitzGorald on 3rd September, 1866, a date previous to the institution of my office. It can hardly be said, even at the present time, to be finished, since doubts exist as to its consistency with itself to the extent of at least nine or ten links per mile, and no tabulated results seem to have been prepared, nor even a complete diagram of the work. At best, even if finished according to contract, it could only have served to connect, and in some degree to check, detail surveys within its area, as its plan would not furnish elements capable of extension or of being united into a system of geodetic survey. It is difficult to believe that this work was undertaken to forward the working of the Native Lands Act, since it is only an extension of an old triangulation commenced, as I understand, by Mr. Thomas FitzGerald, and is in the very heart of the Province. As I have never been able to obtain either a map of the triangulation or a compilation of the Native land claims, I cannot say what proportion of the land the triangulation covers has come before the Native Land Court, but I believe it to be but small. It is clear, at all events, that it has never been of any service whatever in carrying out the provisions of the Native Lands Act. Its cost, amounting to £460, was paid wholly out of General Government funds. I am informed that its area is about 160,000 acres ; I do not think so much is actually included in the triangles. The account of the Province with the General Government in relation to Native land claims surveys seems to stand thus : —■ £ s. d. Charged to General Government for triangulation south of Napier ... ... 460 0 O Ditto in aid of Survey Department of Napier for supervising Native Land Claim Surveys ... " ... ... ... ... ... ... 740 0 O Claimed for ditto ditto, to near the present time ... ... ... ... 437 12 1 £1,637 12 1 —a sum not far short of the cost of the whole Taupo and Bay of Plenty Survey, which extends over an area nearly treble that of all the Native land claims in the Province of Hawke's Bay. Very little more land in the Province is likely to pass through the Native Lands Court, and if the compilation of all the existing land claims surveys were furnished to my office, and steps taken to continue the Taupo triangulations down to the coast, I see no difficulty in transacting any remaining business in the Auckland office, possibly with an occasional reference to the Provincial Surveyor. I therefore strongly recommend that any terms entered into with the Hawke's Bay Government may be based upon a distinct engagement, that complete maps shall be furnished of all the work for the supervision and collation of which such considerable sums of money have been paid. General Trianqulation. Contemporaneously with the arrangements before named for arresting to a certain extent the confusion which must have arisen from a practice of issuing Crown titles to land on the faith of unchecked and unconnected surveys, and for carrying out the duties imposed upon me by " The Native Lands Act, 1867," attention was turned to instituting triangulation in the northern and central parts of the island, by which alone the surveys could be made safe as a basis for Crown Grants, and ultimately available for the determination of the geography of the country. As I was not free to make any commencement until April, 1867, when the winter season was setting in, I confined myself in the first instance to a small connection across the island, from the coast of the Bay of Islands to Hokianga. This was rendered especially necessary by the absolute impossibility of constructing district maps for the compilation of the very numerous Native land claims in that district, owing to the inordinate distortion which had occurred in the Provincial compilation of the old surveys, by which contiguous estates had come to be mapped several miles apart. This little work was so far completed in the winter of 1867 as to eliminate the grossest errors froni the maps, and to furnish a starting point from which triangulations could be extended to the north and south. In February, 1868, I started upon a work of greater magnitude and importance. A number of Native claims had been sent in for land in various parts of the great district which extends from Lake Taupo to the shores of the Bay of Plenty. This country was wholly unknown, except by a sketch made by a traveller or two. No surveys had been made in it, and the land being generally of a poor pastoral character, it was likely that the claims would be of extensive area, and it was certain that if the land should be leased by the Natives it would only be at low rentals, such as would not enable the claimants to pay the heavy price which had ordinarily been charged for chain and compass survey, which seems to have averaged at least 2d. per acre, and often to have cost several times that sum; besides, the district being extensive and occupying the centre of the Island, its accurate survey would evidently afford the means of ultimately connecting the surveys until now detached in Provinces ; and would so furnish a substantial groundwork for the geodetic survey of the whole Island. It was determined, therefore, under your sanction, to carry the triangulation over the whole of it and in order to make its benefits

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