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1886. NEW ZEALAND.

SURVEYS OF NEW ZEALAND. (REPORT FOR 1885-86.)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

The Surveyor-General to the Hon. the Minister of Lands. Sir, — General Survey Office, Wellington, 27th July, 1886. I have the honour to present the report on the land-surveys of New Zealand for the twelve months which ended on the 30th Juno, 1886. In the reports from the officers in charge of the ten land-districts of the colony in the appendix, and from the tabulated returns of work clone by each surveyor, there will be found in detail the different classes of surveys operated on, the areas completed, and the cost. The following statement gives that information in general and succinct form : — Field-work. . Rate per Acre. Cost. Aroa' & s. d. £ s. d. Major triangulation ... ... 1,13.2,571 acres 0 0 Oi 1,14119 11 Minor triangulation ... ... 511,297 „ 0 0 O'BG 1,841 8 9 Topographical and trigonometrical survey 2,972,934 „ 0 0 oB 9,919 0 8 Eural and suburban settlement survey ... 344,243 ~019 30,080 6 3 Town-section survey ... ... "' ~ ~" 018 5 per lot 1,921 1 7 •* [ = 2,08 o allots.] Native Land Court surveys ... ... 146,428 acres 0 0 47 2,866 4 3 Native Land Purchase ... ... 8,877 „ 0 0 569 210 10 3 Gold-mining ... ... ... 1,957 „ 0 15 0"4 1,471 5 3 Roads, railways, &c. ... ... 431 miles 10 15 6i per mile 4,644 15 1 Miscellaneous and detention... ... ... ... ... 10,915 7 3 £65,011 19 3 Triangulation. The area under trigonometrical and topographical survey during the year was somewhat less than the average of former years, the reduction in staff restricting the operations to the more immediately necessary works in the country being dealt with. In the centre of the North Island an area of 2000 square miles south-west from Lake Taupo is now under triangulation, and would have been completed but for the withdrawal of the surveyors to the boundary survey of the Waimarino Block of 400,000 acres on the urgent requisition of the Land Purchase Department. The completion of the trigonometrical survey will facilitate the investigation of Native-land titles, and give data for' an accurate map of the interior of the country, showing forests, open land, river-system, altitudes of plains and hills, leading lines for future main roads, sites of Native settlements, and, generally, the features and capabilities of the country. In the forest-clad hills the surveyors have had very considerable difficiilties in selecting trig, stations mutually intervisible for well-conditioned triangles, and they have had sopie annoyance and delay from the Natives wilfully destroying the signals on stations. Still, however, the area under survey being so extensive, the j—C. U.