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year I gave 1,054 plans as received for that year. These, added to the 2,041 received for this year, make a total of gold-mining plans received and recorded for the two years of 3,095 plans, having a total area of 236,722 acres. For the first nine months of the year the pressure from the Warden and from the mining public was very great, but the office has been able to deal effectively with such extraordinary calls upon its energies. There is still a large number of plans on hand awaiting examination and record (nearly four hundred), and a large number of authorities for new surveys still outstanding; but I believe a very large number of them will be withdrawn, owing to the subsidence of a good deal of wild speculation, and the likelihood of the mining industry settling down into a practical winning of the ore from the ground. Surveys under " The Mining District Land Occupation Act, 1894." —These have been very few, only some seven sections, of a total area of 379 acres, costing £68 ss. 6d. Road Surveys. —The staff have graded and surveyed 136 miles, all in rough broken country, at a cost of nearly £12 per mile. Detention and Other Work. —The cost of detention is that incurred by Mr. Baber whilst endeavouring to survey roads at Whakarewarewa and Waiotapu, resulting in a Court case, which the department lost on technical grounds. The amount of £533 10s. BeL, under the heading of " Other work," includes cost of attending Native Land Court at Whangarei by Mr. Martin, during the subdivision of the Whatitiri Block, at the Judge's request; miscellaneous mining services for Warden by Mr. Haszard ; supervision of road-works and engineering surveys by Mr. A. H. Vickerman ; reports on kauri-forests ; and inspection of roads and other services by Mr. J. B. Thomson. Works in Progress. —These consist of triangulation from Cape Colville to Te Aroha, being a partial revision of the existing disjoined series of minor triangulation, and the carrying over the whole district a set of triangles with an average of ten-mile sides, most of the stations being either new ones or requiring re-erection and additional clearing. This is being carried out by Mr. Cussen himself, with the assistance of Mr. Spencer in erecting the new stations. The staff have some 107,076 acres of rural-section work in hand in various districts for settlement purposes, including some 8,000 acres of land acquired in the Okauia Block, near Matamata, under the Land for Settlements Acts. The staff have also actually in hand some eighty-nine miles and a half of road surveys, with another hundred miles which ought to be in hand shortly. Gebhaed Muelleb, Chief Surveyor.

HAWKE'S BAY. Topographical Survey for Selection.—The only survey of this class made during the year comprised an area of 25,000 acres of the Motu Block, which was surveyed by Mr. J. Stevenson, at a cost of l-2d. per acre. It is broken forest-country, since thrown open for selection and a portion of it taken up. Rural and Suburban. —The area surveyed this year was 4,708 acres, the cost being Is. 9d. per acre. These surveys are scattered over the district: 2,096 acres surveyed by Mr. Hay being portions of the Elsthorpe and Waikopiro Settlements; 712 acres surveyed by Mr. Boddick being subdivisional survey of the Waimarie and Pouparae Settlements, which are cut up into twentyseven sections for selection; 700 acres surveyed by Mr. Mouat at Nuhaka; and one section of 1,200 acres surveyed by Mr. J. Stevenson in the Motu Block. The Waikopiro, Nuhaka, and Motu Blocks are broken forest-country, the remainder being open. Town Section Surveys. —Only two surveys of this class have been executed, both done by Mr. Boddick, one being the survey of a village in the Elsthorpe Estate of 28 acres, which was subdivided into twenty-two allotments at a cost of £1 2s. Id. per acre (or £1 9s. lid. per allotment). It was necessary to survey Block XV., Buckley Township, at Tolago Bay, before sale, the old pegs having decayed or been removed, the 5 acres being pegged out into quarter-acre allotments at a cost of ss. 9-J-d. per allotment. Native Land Court Surveys. —Very little has been done during the year under this heading, only 37,251 acres having been survey3d, at a cost of l'9ld. per acre. Of this area Mr. Boddick has surveyed 37,207 acres, at a cost of l-85d. per acre, the others being small surveys. In Mr. Boddick's survey is included Te Kumi subdivisions (29,940 acres) and Baparapariki subdivision (820 acres), both of which are situated in broken forest-country, Te Kumi being difficult of access. The cost— viz., l'Bsd. per acre—is very reasonable, and creditable to the officer who made the surveys. Road Surveys. —Total roads surveyed during the year was 36 miles 50 chains, the cost being £176 per mile. This cost is above the average, and is owing to the high cost of some of Mr. Hay's work, seven miles and a half of which cost £36-13 per mile, due to loss of time on account of his being on several occasions taken off his road surveys to do other pressing work, and also to the very wet weather during the last month he was engaged thereon, through which very little surveying could be done. The other road surveys are not above the average, the 14-J miles surveyed in open country by Mr. Mouat costing £11 Is. lOd. per mile, and the 14 miles 50 chains surveyed by Mr. Eoddick in forest, £14 10s. per mile. Other work under this heading, but which cannot be returned owing to the plans not being completed, is Mr. Mouat's survey of the Gisborne-Eotorua Boad. The country between Mr. Newton's, Hangaroa Boad, and the Aniwaniwa Saddle, near Waikare-moana, has been explored, and a road-line located and graded throughout, the distance being thirty-five miles. Of this, a magnetic traverse and engineering survey has been made of fifteen miles, leaving about twenty-five miles yet to survey to complete its junction with the Botorua-Galatea-Waikare-moana Boad. Moving camp, &c, on this survey was difficult owing to there being no roads through the country, hence about twenty-one miles of horse-track had to be cut to enable communication to be kept up, which will add to the cost of the work; the total cost on this account to the end of March being £413 ss. 2d., which will be carried forward to next year.