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1919. NEW ZEALAND.

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY: SURVEYS (ANNUAL REPORT ON).

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

The Surveyor General to the Hon. Minister of Lands. Sir,— Wellington, 14th July, 1919. I have the honour to present herewith the report on survey operations for the year ended 31st March, 1919. I have, &c, E, 11. Wilmot, Surveyor-General. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie, Minister of Lands.

EEPOET. This report deals with survey operations for the year in a general way only, leaving details to be found in the tables attached and in the reports supplied by the Chief Surveyors filed as departmental records. Under the heading " Rural Surveys " in Table B, an area of 302,369 acres is shown as completed work, against 343,525 acres for last year. The decrease of 41,156 acres is due partly to the small field staff available, and partly to the fact that so many of the surveyors have been employed on the surveys of small estates for soldier settlement instead of on large blocks of Crown lands. The area of Native lands surveyed during the year for the ame reason shows a decrease from 271,481 acres to 241,927 acres. The cost of rural surveys remains the same as last year —Is. 6d. per acre—but Native surveys have gone up Id., being this year Is. 7d. per acre. The increase is in the cost of the work done by private surveyors, which amounted to 95 per cent, of the whole, and is no doubt accounted for by the difficulty of obtaining labour and the consequent high wages paid. A summary of the work executed during the year will be found in Table A.

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