C—l.

XLIV

Otukai Extension, Okokokiriki No. le, Tuma-Kaituna, and Motatai Extension, all in Auckland District; Rerekapa-Moanatairi, Vera, Mimi-iti, Waikaka, Waitangata, Patupurenu, Mangaowata, and Taurangi, all in Taranaki District; and Eao, Mangaroa, Tirangi. and Mawhanau, in Wellington District. Nineteen schedules of local Bills have been examined and certified for the Local Bills Committee of the House of Representatives. Two hundred and eleven descriptions of boundaries have been written. Ninety tracings for permanent-record files and to illustrate outwards correspondence have been made. Number of maps and tracings mounted, 1,108. Extra departmental work, consisting of map-drawing, tracing, and describing boundaries, has been performed for the following twelve Departments of the service : viz., Police, Marine, Native, Land for Settlements, Justice, Public Health, Registrar-General's, Colonial Secretary's, Education, Defence, Agricultural, Trade and Customs. An interesting brochure on " Flightless Birds," by R. Henry, Caretaker of the sanctuary for birds at Resolution Island, has been printed, and is now going through the press. Shortly after the arrival in New Zealand of H.M. surveying ship " Penguin " instructions were issued to the Chief Surveyors to compute the latitudes and longitudes of the coastal trig, stations shown on the departmental plans as derived from the land-surveys in terms of the new determination of Mount Cook, Wellington, and plot these stations on the several Admiralty charts. The whole colony has now been completed in this respect, and carefully executed maps have been prepared, showing by comparison upon the Admiralty charts the coast-line as derived from the land-surveys. Three sets of charts have been prepared—one copy for the Admiralty, one for the Marine Department, and one for the Head Office. This duty involved the computation and checking of the latitude and longitude of 754 stations, also the plotting of each station, and the readjustment of the coast-line on fifty-one charts. A portion of Admiralty Chart No. 2553, Sheet XL, Foveaux Strait, is published in the Annual Report of this Department for this year, for the purpose of illustrating the average difference between the Admiralty and land surveys. Several publications of this Department have been distributed locally, and throughout the Commonwealth of Australia, and Great Britain and Ireland. Four thousand copies of " Notes on New Zealand," forty copies of Annual Report of Lands and Survey Department, 1901—2, two thousand six hundred copies of " The Settlers' Handbook," and one hundred copies of the new ten-mile map of New Zealand have been forwarded to the Agent-General, London. The general miscellaneous and routine work of the office relating to the recording of Gazette Proclamations and notices, Orders in Council, additions and alterations to county maps, and road district maps, has been discharged with regularity. Correspondence. Mr. F. T. O'Neill, Chief Clerk, reports :— The total number of letters and telegrams received was 17,598, and the outward correspondence amounted to 16,900 —a total of 34,498 documents received, recorded, or despatched. This total is slightly greater than last year. The number of new subjects opened amounted to 2,803, and 500 records were received from other Departments for reference or report. The number of Proclamations, Orders in Council, Warrants, and notices prepared during the year underthe Acts specified was : — " The Land Act, 1892 " ; 4 Proclamations setting apart land as village settlements, 8 Orders in Council fixing terms and conditions of lease of village-homestead allotments, 1 Proclamation withdrawing lands from lease as village settlements, 1 Order in Council increasing the area that may be held in a village settlement, 45 Warrants notifying lands for sale by public auction, 8 Proclamations setting apart lands for leasing as small grazing-runs, 90 Warrants opening lands for sale or selection, 3 Proclamations setting apart or withdrawing lands from lease as improved-farm settlements, 1 Proclamation setting apart land as a special settlement, and 1 Order in Council making regulations for a special settlement. "The Cemeteries Act, 1882" : 45 Warrants and 3 Orders in Council appointing or removing trustees. "The Public Domains Act, 1881": 15 Orders in Council bringing lands under Act, and 63 Orders in Council delegating powers. " The Public Reserves Act, 1881 " : 31 Orders in Council vesting reserves in local bodies, 7 Warrants changing purposes of reserves.