REPORTS BY THE INSPECTOR OF SURVEYS.

G.—No. 21

4

RETURN showing the NUMBER and GROSS AREA of MAPS of NATIVE LAND COURT CLAIMS received at the Inspectors of Surveys Office, Auckland, from 1st July, 1871, to 30th June, 1872.

RETURN showing EXTENT and COST of TRIANGULATION executed by the Inspector of Surveys Department, from 1st July, 1871, to 30th June, 1872.

No. 2. The Inspector of Sitbveys to the Hon. the Native Ministee. Inspector of Survey's Office, g _ Auckland, sth July, 1871. I have the honor to forward Returns of the number of maps of Native land claims which have been received by my department during the year ending 30th June, 1871; and of the area they include within each province, also a Beturn showing the progress of the trigonometrical surveys and the cost incurred upon each ; accompanied by an outline man of the B orth Island, on winch are shown all the triangulations hitherto made, with the exception of those in the Province of Wellington. It has been the constant object of my reports to urge the unanswerable truth, that the only economical, safe, and efficient mode of land survey is to base the whole on a sound practical system of trianeulation, to insist on every detail survey being made on that only as its basis, on the reception of every map' in the survey office to lay it down immediately on the general maps constructed from the trigonometrical elements, and so to maintain from the the first record maps demonstrably true within small and known limits; and which accordingly furnish irrefragable evidence of the position and boundaries of every granted estate ; and I have repeatedly pointed out the magnitude of the evils, both in respect of first cost as well as of its ultimate results, which have arisen from the practice hitherto adopted in the northern provinces of measuring each piece independently, from time to time as required with no better provision for parallelism than that afforded by the compass, and no standard of length but the surveyor's chain, and generally with no better means of establishing relative positions than some greater or less degree of accordance in the form of the boundaries of adjacent estates; and I have shown that to have allowed such a system to be expanded over the whole country under the operation of the Native Land Act, would speedily have led to hopeless confusion of titles. I have also explained that, as a temporary means of preventing overlap and gross mistakes 1 adopted a rigorous system of invariably collating all maps on district maps before issuing certificates of titles, but since the only safe and permanent remedy must lie in the extension of trianguiation over

No. oj Maps. Abea. Ketiten. No. of Maps. Aeea. Retuen. Auckland— Prior to June 30, 1871 In year ending June 30,1872 1,666 161 A. E. P. 2,182,028 0 0 243,001 0 0 Middle Island— Prior to June 30, 1871 In year ending June 30,1872 57 Nil. A. B. P. 21,769 0 0 Nil. 2,425,029 0 0 57 21,769 0 C 1,827 Hawke's Bay— Prior to June 30, 1871 In year ending June 30, 1872 200 36 911,724 0 0 321,515 0 0 Total. Auckland Hawke's Bay ... Wellington Middle Island ... ... 236 1,233,239 0 0 ■Wellington— Prior to June 30, 1871 In year ending June 30,1872 1,827 236 292 57 2,425,029 0 0 1,233,239 0 0 833,577 0 021,769 0 0 284 8 229,936 0. 0 603,641 0 0 Grand Total 2,4.12 4,513,014 0 0 292 833,577 0 0 J. E. Alien, Chief Draftsman.

Aeea. Cost. Eetuen. iAIPAKA — . Completed ... ... ••• ■■■ ■•• Stations erected on 175,400, say equal to two-thirds a. e. r. 82,656 0 0 117,000 0 0 £ s. d, 587 0 0 Cost per acre. 7-10ths of a penny. Boad exploration and Triangulation between the Bay of Islands & Wairoa 199,656 0 0 457 0 0 [awke's Bat, 70-mixb Bush — Completed ... •■• •■• ,'■"-. Cost per acre, 4-lOths of a penny. 850,000 0 0 1,371 0 0 Theop. Hea: Inspe' a, :tor of Surveys.