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1876. NEW ZEALAND.

REPORT BY INSPECTOR OF SURVEYS. Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Mr. T. Heale to the Hon. the Natite Ministeb. Sib, — Inspector of Surveys' Office, Auckland, 23rd June, 187 G. I have the honor to forward, at an earlier date than usual, my report on the work of this department, with returns for the year, as nearly as they can be made up before the actual expiry of the period. The total area of land surveyed in blocks for adjudication before the Native Lands Court, for Native reserves, or subdivided into sections, amounts to 1,053,298 acres, in addition to over 690,000 of which the survey is in an advanced condition, but not yet completed ; and the triangulation has been completed over 2,000,000 of acres, and is in progress over about 600,000 acres more. These two last areas, including the greater portion of the former, surveyed lands. The distribution and nature of this work are as follow : — 1. District North of Auckland. The surveys here consist almost entirely of blocks purchased on "behalf of the Government, which are in almost every case interstitial pieces between former purchases from the Natives, some of them made many years ago; and the survey of them has consequently involved the recovery of old boundaries, originally very imperfectly surveyed, without reference to any triangulated or otherwise fixed points, and of which all marks on the ground had in many cases long since disappeared. It would have been impossible to have executed the work within the time, or at anything like the very moderate sum it has cost, but for the large triangulation extended over the greater part of this district by this department in former years: by that happy provision many perfect means have existed of controlling the work, and by it all the larger old surveys in the North have been closed, and have now for the first time been brought into accordance. In doing so many errors of position have been rectified, involving in one case the alteration of a Crown grant and a considerable reduction of the area conveyed by it. A glance at the map will show that very nearly the whole of the area has now been surveyed, and that a small portion only remains under Native title. 2. In the Valley of the Thames and Piako. A considerable area appears in the returns as only now completed, but a large part of this has been long in hand. The surveyors have been employed throughout under the Land Purchase Agent, and their work has been carried on under very constant Native interuptions; it has consequently been very expensive, and is far from accurate or complete. I am satisfied that much of the opposition to surveys has been suggested by parties not Natives, and that it will be readily overcome whenever it is quite understood that no surveys will be accepted but those made by the officers of this department after triangulation ; and, looking at the increasing value of the land, and the disproportionate cost and unconnected state of the work of the private surveyors, I cannot doubt that an effort ought to be made in the ensuing summer to carry out such a work, and to bring this district under the system of regular official survey which now prevails over most part of the island. 3. The Arawa Country, Bay of Plenty and Taupo. The area surveyed for the purpose of purchase is considerable, but the work has not been heavy, the country being open and completely triangulated, the block surveys also including former surveys in most cases. A large area of new surveys has been commenced, but they are now stopped. 4. Poverty Bay. The surveys here have been of enormous extent, and for the most part in very rough and inaccessible country. Many large surveys had been commenced by contract surveyors engaged by the Land Purchase Agents, before they were placed under my charge. It became therefore my first object to carry a triangulation over the district, in order to control and co-ordinate these surveys; and in this I