C.-4.

OTAGO. No contract surveys have been done this year within this district. The areas of the different classes of survey-work done during the past year, the average cost per acre or allotment, and the total cost, together with the cost of this office and the branch offices, I find to be as follow :— Description, Area, Rate. Total Cost. Minor triangulation and Acres. £ a. d. £ s. d. topographical survey 463,200 0 0 097 per acre 1,861 10 4 Rural and suburban sections .. 40,841 0 1 675 „ 3,219 5 4 Town sections (720 lots) 512 12 4 per lot 804 611 Gold-mining surveys .. 275 017 4 per acre 239 9 4 Native Land Court surveys .. 383 0 12 10 „ 245 0 0 Roads, railways, and Miles. water-races .. 26 717 6 per mile 234 10 6 Other work .. .. .. .. .. 602 8 1 £7,206 10 6 Less amount paid during last year 270 14 4 Total cost of field-work for the year .. £6,935 16 2 j, Dunedin and branch offices 3,023 5 9 • ' - £9,959 1 11 The particulars of the trigonometrical and rural section-surveys, and of the other work as tabulated above, are in the following pages and in the tabulated statements which accompany this : but I would here remark, as regards the cost of the town sections, a considerable number of these were laid off in the bush at Tapanui; and also, as to the cost of road surveys, 9Jj miles of these are included in an engineering survey in the Wyndham Valley, which is necessarily expensive. The above total cost of £9,959 Is. lid. includes about £1,000 due by other departments to this office. Minor Triangulation and Topography. —The trigonometrical survey this year has been carried on solely by the staff, and chiefly with the view of completing the topography of the Otago runs, which fall in in 1882-83, and which work will be resumed so soon as winter has passed. At the same time the connection between Lake Wakatipu and Martin's Bay has been advanced a stage. Messrs Barron, Mackay, Murray, and Langmuir have been more or less engaged during the year on the run surveys. The acreage done by each is 60,000, 85,551, 93,600, and 191,049 acres respectively. The cost of this work averages 0 - 97 d. per acre, or a little under Id. per acre. This work is very necessary and useful, as no survey of the country they have overtaken has ever been made since the reconnaissance survey of 1856, by Mr. J. T. Thomson, C.E., the late Surveyor-General. Topographical maps on a scale of 40 chains to 1 inch have already come in of the most of this work, and those of the balance will soon be finished also. All the existing run fences and other features are carefully marked, together with homesteads, the altitude of trig, stations, and so on. The boundaries of new runs can thus be laid down with considerable accuracy on these maps. This triangulation has been carried on by means of plain theodolites of 5-inch diameter for measuring the horizontal and vertical angles, and the steel band where necessary for base line, lineal measurements. The difference of bearing in the close of Mr. Barren's triangulation, Turnagain District, with Mr. G. M. Barr's, is 45", and the linkages close with an average difference of 064 link per mile. Considering the rough and mountainous nature of the country, this is very fair work. Mr. Murray's Warthill triangulation, carried over very rough high country, shows a mean difference iv the closing of its triangles of 10", with a maximum of 33', and a minimum of 0". The linkages agree to within an average of I*9 links per mile. At its junction with Mr. Conn ell's triangulation in Benger District the bearings agree to within an average of 10", and the linkages to I'sB links per mile. Mr. Langmuir's triangulation of parts of Teviot, Benger, Beaumont, Lammerlaw, Longvalley, and Hedgehope Districts agrees in the closing of triangles to within an average of 12", and in linkages to an average of l'o6 links per mile. At the junction of this work with the Serpentine District the bearings close to within 34", and the linkages to 3 - 54 links per mile. The bases used are about 50 miles apart, and Mr. Langmuir reports that the atmosphere during the work on the highest ranges, towards the Serpentine, was unfavourable, being very warm, unsteady, and very often dulled by smoke from grass fires. Mr. Murray and Mr. Langmuir have taken much pains in making very good topographical maps, which are now in this office. As regards the connection from Wakatipu to Martin's Bay, carried on by Mr. Wilmot this summer, it has been under difficulties. Last year the work was all laid out by the selection of suitable trig, stations up the Routeburn and down the Hollyford Valley. This season the men of the party refused to go again, seeing wages had been reduced; so Mr. Wilmot had to get such new men as were obtainable. With these new men double work became necessary, in the surveyor having to go to each trig, to point it out. The weather also was bad,

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