D.—No. 20.

Enclosure 2 in No. 6. Ketuett showing the Aeea and Cost of Thiangulation executed under Provisions of "The Native Lands Act, 1867." Bay of Islands District. Area within calculated triangles, 244,150 acres ; cost, £560 6s. Bd.; being o'ssd. per acre. Taupo and Say of Plenty District. Acres. Area within calculated triangles ... ... ... 945,100 Area included by reconnaissance survey ... ... 1,024,000 Area of incompleted survey ... ... ... 40,500 Total ... ... 2,009,600 Cost ... ... ... ... £2,100 7s. lid. Being o's3d. per acre. Chatham Islands. Area, 238,120 acres ; cost at 255. per 1,000 acres, £297 13s. Inspector of Surveys' Office, Auckland, 3rd June, 1869.

No. 7. Copy of a Letter from Mr. T. Healb to the Hon. the Native Ministbh. Sib,— "Wellington, 19th June, 1869. Four maps of traverse surveys executed on the East Coast by surveyors working for Mr. S. Locke, under general directions from the late Major Biggs, reached my office some time since, and in several communications I have stated my doubts as to what portion of the work was properly chargeable to the Government and what to the Native owners of the several blocks of land the boundaries of which have been surveyed. On reaching Napier, however, last month, I received for the first time, from Mr. Locke, a statement of the terms on which he had the work done, and was furnished by him with copies of letters from Major Biggs, conveying a general approval of it. These documents establish in my mind the conclusion that however little service these boundary surveys may now render to the Government, the payment of them ought to be completed, their execution having been approved by an authorized agent. The surveys will then be the absolute property of the Government, and if any blocks of land are adjudged to Native claimants by the Compensation Court through the instrumentality of them, the due proportion of their cost ought to be claimed on behalf of the Government, and be secured by lien on the Crown Grant, just as would be done in favour of a private surveyor; or at all events, the surveyors should not be allowed to claim payment from landowners or their lessees for surveys which have been executed for the Government. On this view of the case, there is nothing left to do as regards Mr. Locke but to check the quantities charged for in the bills, just as in the case of any other contract surveyor, and to pay the balance due, if any. These bills amount in all, exclusive of some charges for interest, to £2,856 Os. 10d., of which £2,300 has been paid on account. I only saw the bills, for the first time, yesterday. Of the four maps which comprise the work, the most important, that of Poverty Bay, has on it no bearings and distances of the traverses, and therefore the quantities cannot be checked on it with any accuracy, nor, indeed, could any payment have been properly claimed on this survey while the map is so incomplete. The second, that of the East Cape, is complete. That of Tolago Bay is not in my possession here, but I shall find it at Poverty Bay, in the custody of the Court. But the fourth, that of Upper Wairoa and Waiau to the Waikaro Moana, is stated by Mr. Locke to have been taken away from Napier by the Hon. the Defence Minister, and cannot be found, and its loss is a very serious inconvenience. lam thus not in a position to check this bill in detail here. There are however certain facts in connection with it which may well be considered at once, and which will seriously modify the state of the balance. The terms on which Mr. Locke undertook these surveys were the contract rates which were used in Auckland some years ago, viz., £8 per mile for forest cuttings, £4 per mile for fern cutting, and £2 per mile for open traverse. The bill for the Poverty Bay work includes : — 107 M miles of forest cutting at £8 ... ... ... ... £859 14s. 67M „ fern at £4 ... ... ... ... ... £270 16s. 32|f „ open traverse at £2 ... ... ... ... £64 11s. 1211 pegs ... ... ... ... ... ... ... £60 11s. Now on looking at the map I find delineated a very few detached clumps of forest, the lines through which only scale 3f§ miles, a difference which alone would make a reduction from the sum charged, amounting to £416. I am well aware that it will be said that in the Waikato Surveys, although the printed terms of contract stated forest cutting £8, the term "high cutting" came to be used in surveyors' bills, and that some contract surveyors were allowed to include under that head cutting through vegetation which could not possibly be called forest nor even bush, and were even paid £8 per mile for lines through raupo. I have however always considered that to be one of the corruptions which so strikingly characterized the Survey Department in Auckland, and as when executing contract surveys I never charged, so I have never knowingly permitted others to charge, as forest, for any cutting which was not through trees; there are indeed some kinds of cuttings, such

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INSPECTOR OE SURVEYS. I