THE SCIENCE OF SURVEYING.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1299, 19 September 1883, Page 2

THE SCIENCE OF SURVEYING.

* The following from the Gisborne Herald will be read with amusement by landowners who have had anything to do witli the tribe of surveyors : — There is something extraordinary in deciding the precise measurement of

land blocks in Gisbom?, which time < and advanced science only is likely to ; explain. One surveyor will, commencing at the Masonic corner, and measuring up to Maynard's butchery, make every buildiug in the block as standing 16in on everyone elso'si ground. On the other hand, another surveyor, measuring this time from Maynard's end to the .Masonic corner, will make the building 19inoffitsown ground ; that is, the owner has got 19in —sometimes it is 24] in — ess than he is entitled to possess. Various reasons are given for this va.-iation — as for instance the moon's libration, centrifugal forces, magnetic changes ; terrestrial underground wave motion, earthquakes, the earth's curvature, the action of the members of the legal profession to increase costs by creating disputes when preparing deeds of grants and leaseholds. A discovery was late y made, when it was found on examination and comparison that the surveyors' measuring-chains differed from 15into22in between each other. One .surveyor had a sort of dim reminiscence that some links of a brother surveyor's chain had become disunited, and that omitting to allow for this he had calculated his chain as being the authorised orthodox length. When the three measuring-chains came to be severely tested, it was found that absolutely and truly not one of them tallied with the other ; hence the difference in inches between the measurements from the Masonic corner to I Mavnard's and vice versa.