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Inspections. During the year the system of inspection has been thoroughly carried out, though not quite as generally as could have been wished, owing to the Inspectors having been so much engaged in pressing work, such as city and other standard surveys, &c. ; still, enough has been done to show that the work, with a few exceptions, is highly satisfactory. When the large number of surveyors engaged is considered it is not unnatural to expect that one or two may lapse into such a state of carelessness that causes action to be taken whereby others may be prevented from falling into the same error. In this connection the Surveyors Board in their suspension during the year of one license will doubtless act as a deterrent to others whose work may fall so far behind the proper standard of efficiency. In the Auckland District Mr. W. J. Wheeler, Inspecting Surveyor, has been kept very busy, and reports a marked improvement in quality of the work in most of the surveys inspected. Owing to the transfer of Mr. Haszard to Canterbury, the southern portion of the Auckland District has been without an Inspecting Surveyor, and this has necessitated, when opportunity offered, utilizing the services of several of the staff surveyors for the purpose. It was also found necessary, owing to special circumstances requiring it, to send Mr. J. D. Climie, Inspector of Surveys, to make inspections at Kawau Island and Taupo. For that portion of the North Island south of the Auckland District, Mr. J. D. Climie, Inspector of Surveys, has been kept very actively employed, at times his duties having carried him into the Auckland District as shown above, also into the Taranaki, Nelson, and Hawke's Bay Districts. He reports having made twenty-three inspections during the year —viz., eleven land Transfer Surveys and one road survey in the Wellington District; three in the Hawke's Bay District; five staff surveys in the Nelson District; and three staff surveys in the Taranaki District. These gave satisfactory results. Eleven inspections were made by Messrs. G. H. Bullard, Inspecting Surveyor, and T. Brook, District Surveyor ; these were found to be up to the required standard, with the exception of two which have been returned to the surveyor for amendment. Four inspections were made by staff surveyors in the Nelson District. The inspections in the Westland District, with the exception of that of one private surveyor, gave very satisfactory results. Only three formal inspections were made in the Canterbury District, owing to the urgent work required on pastoral-run and settlement survey work. Tidal Survey. The work of this survey has consisted in the analysis, by means of the tidal abacus of Sir G. H. Darwin, X.C.8., F.R.S., of the Wellington self-registering tide-gauge records for the year 1909, and the prediction of the tides for Wellington for the year 1912. The results of the predictions are furnished to the Marine Department for transmission to the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, and will be published in the " British Admiralty Tide Tables " ; and they will also be published by the Marine Department in the " New Zealand Nautical Almanac " for 1912. As in the previous year, much care has been necessary to overcome difficulties and to arrange the various processes in the best way so that all results may be checked, and a number of improvements, which experience has proved desirable, will be introduced in the coming year. Operations for 1911-12. The new year commenced with a field staff of seventy-four surveyors, who have a very large amount of work on hand and in actual progress. This, as is always the case, will be largely added to irom time to time. There is also the prospect of further purchases under the Land for Settlements Act and by the Nativs Land Purchase Board, as well as heavy calls for the survey of Native land in connection with Native Land Boards, and these, coupled with miscellaneous work, will, I am sure, keep the surveyors more than fully occupied during the year. The principal classes and area of work on hand at the beginning of the year, together with the number of surveyors employed, will be found in Table 2, and is summarized as follows : Triangulation, 3,270 square miles ; settlement, 690,518 acres ; town, 122 acres ; Native-land surveys, 207,050 acres ; roads, 192 miles. Those areas coming under the heading of " settlement," " town," and " Nativeland survey," and which may be classed as subdivisional surveys, give a total of 897,690 acres. This large area, however, does not represent all new work, for the survey of some 120,000 acres has been completed in the field, the mapping of which has yet to be done. Of the foregoing areas the Auckland staff has an area of 268,398 acres of settlement lands, 32,000 acres of which has been completed in the field, besides Native-land surveys of 125,841 acres. In addition to this, a total of some 116,000 acres spread over the district and representing Crown and national-endowment land is anticipated to be surveyed for selection, which is more than ample to keep the staff as well as contract surveyors fully employed.