C. — 1A

1943 NEW ZEALAND

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY SURVEYS (ANNUAL REPORT ON)

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

The Surveyor-General to the Hon. the Minister of Lands, Sir, — Wellington, Ist June, 1943. I have the honour to present herewith the report on survey operations for the year ending 31st March, 1943. I have, &c., H. E. Walshe, The Hon. the Minister of Lands. Surveyor-General.

REPORT The continuation of the war has resulted in a further decrease of the Civil work carried out by the Department. The tables appended show that the amount of routine field-work carried out is now about one-third that of pre-war years and of office-work about one-half; even in this latter, however, the circumstances due to war account for a large proportion of the work returned. On the other hand, the total work carried out has increased greatly, the field-work this year being double that of last year and two and a quarter times that of pre-war. Field-work.—Eighty-two per cent, of this was directly war work of an urgent nature and of which details cannot be released for publication at the present time. The balance is sot out in Table 1, the costs shown comparing very favourably with past years. Included in the item " Other work " are boundary location and road-line surveys, £1,974 ; investigation surveys, £133 ; maintenance of standard surveys, £57 ; Police Court surveys, £180 ; reports, leave, &c., £792. During the year aerial photography of approximately 7,250 square miles was carried out for the Department's mapping programme. Office-work. —Civil work dropped approximately 40 per cent, on that of last year, but this was more than offset by the increase in work for the Services. This is shown in Table 3. Table 4 shows that the number of saleable lots in town schemes submitted have dropped nearly 50 per cent. The percentage of reserves to saleable area is 6-2 per cent., but as the return includes slight amendments to approved schemes which have already provided reserves, the percentage would be increased somewhat if these were excluded. Tables 5 and 6 are analyses of the salary expenditure on various classes of work in each district. A comparison of these tables with similar ones in pre-war years will show the large increase in " mapping " due to war and the consequent decreases in routine work such as " records," " diagrams," and " investigations." Tidal Analysis.—No tidal analyses were made, but predictions for the seven standard ports were carried out by the Tidal Institute, Liverpool, using harmonic constants supplied by the Department. Warrants. —During the year 124 warrants for certificates of title and 10 proclamations of roadlines under the Native Land Act, 1931, were dealt with. Work in Hand. —A full programme of work for the ensuing year is in hand. Staff. —Those on duty here have been working at high pressure and long hours to deal with the urgency of the work entrusted them, and their zealous work is much appreciated.