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year will probably see the whole Province redrawn to the 80-chain scale. Sheet No. 4of the Province, drawn by Mr. Pollen to the four-mile scale, has been completed and transmitted to you for photo-lithographing. When published it will prove the most interesting of them all, as it shows all the new surveys in the King country down to the 39th parallel. A start will shortly be made with the remaining sheet, embracing Cook county and part of the Bay of Plenty. The requirements of the public, other departments, and the local bodies have been fairly met, but, owing to the reduction of the staff, not nearly so expeditiously as T could wish. Mr. J. K. Johnston, the accountant, has checked and passed 1,204 vouchers, for a sum of £35,979 3s. 9d., representing expenditure on surveys, roads to open Crown lands, homestead surveys, and forest department, and has, with the assistance of a Maori boy, attended to the record of the correspondence. Work for Ensuing Season. —The survey staff have a considerable amount of work completed in the field, the plans of which will come under next year's returns, and they also have instructions for some 27,000 acres of section survey, which will also be finished during the year. In addition to which there is an area of about 25,000 acres of land, for which instructions have not yet been issued. The triangulation of the King Country, in the southern portion, will shortly be completed, leaving then only the West Coast series of smaller triangles to finish it all up. Attention will be given to the very largo mileage of roads which still requires to be defined on the ground. Doubtless the surveys to obtain titles in.the King country will progress during the ensuing year, a start having already been made ; and if this large area is to be submitted to the same slow process of minute division characteristic of the larger part of the Province—already dealt with by the Land Court prior to its alienation into European hands—there will be a field open to the profession, which will occupy them for many years to come, and which will necessitate the keeping up of a staff of draughtsmen in the office, which otherwise—in the natural course of events —might, at no distant date, be reduced. I hope to obtain your consent to the employment of one of the senior surveyors on the street alignment survey so urgently required in this city, as I feel sure that its cost will be saved over and over again within the next few years. During the past year one of the cadets has passed on to the grade of assistant surveyor and is now in the field, and I much regret to report the loss, by death, of a most promising young Maori lad, who held the position of record clerk and translator in the office. S. Percy Smith, Assistant Surveyor-General.

TAEANAKI. Through the retirement of four surveyors in. the beginning of the year our out-turn of work has been necessarily reduced. The decrease in the strength of the field staff, which at the time affected the department generally, would, in any case, have shortly taken place here, owing to the completion of the large extent of surveys that had of late years so fully occupied a large staff. Thus, fortunately, settlement has not been retarded, but we have been able with the reduced staff to keep well ahead of the sales. Triangulation. —We return this year 320,000 acres, with a further 130,000 in hand. This extends from the confiscation line to the Wanganui River, from Wangamomona to, Ohura, and is formed of triangles with about eight mile sides, with about three stations to each survey district. Minor triangulation can follow in the future as required by " breaking down," care having been taken by Mr. Skeet in the selection of the stations with this in view. There is no necessity at the present time for incurring such an expenditure as would be required for this work, as in this locality it is not likely to be needed for many years to come. It may occasionally be necessary to " break down " for Native Land Court block purposes, but the expense would be trivial compared with a complete network of small triangles in a wooded country such as it is. Rural and Suburban. —Of this class we have completed 18,718 acres, with 8,000 more in hand well forward, the average cost per acre has been 31 '6d., and had it not been for one block which ran up to 55., the rate would have been considerably lower. The whole of the work for this year, with the exception of 150 acres of suburban land, has been in dense forest, and in some parts the roads have given considerable trouble. Great credit is due to the surveyors for the patience and skill that have been exercised in the selection of the best lines. Town Section. —A small town has been laid off at the Mokau Heads. Although in the Auckland District, the work was executed by the staff here, as it was more convenient and economical than sending a surveyor from Auckland. Land Court Surveys. —£294 3s. sd. appears in the schedule under this head. No area could be assigned to it as the expenditure related to but a comparatively very small portion of the boundary of the Aotea block. Back Pegging Old Work. —During the year we have cleared off 17,931 acres of this work at a cost of 8- 9 d. an acre against Bd. last year. Nearly the whole of the sections where we are now working, have stream boundaries instead of the straight lines as in the previous year's work; this has a tendency to increase the cost, and the 38,000 acres yet to be dealt with are similarly bounded, and smaller areas, averaging about 80 acres. Roads and Railways. —Nine and a half miles of road have been surveyed, and thirteen and a half of railway line for land plans at a cost of £21 Bs. per mile. Office Work. —ln the early part of the year, fully a month's time of the "whole office staff was engaged on Property-tax work, correcting, revising, and making additional maps of fourteen road and town districts. Plans and descriptions have been drawn for 179 grants representing 1183 plans of sections, and an area of 25,637 a. 2r. 22p., sixty-nine Crown leases representing 9,067 a. Or. 19p., and 208 plans have been treated in the same manner on ordinary certificates of title ; 440 diagrams have been drawn, and 21 surveyor's maps, under the Land Transfer Act, checked and passed. Besides this, 192 plans have been put on native leases, and there has been the general routine of office work, checking surveyor's maps, and recording them on the maps of various scales, &c.