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ment small grazing-run by Mr. Martin ; £99 is for grading roads, reporting on and taking soundings for wharf-site, Pakoka, and sundry inspections by Mr. A. H. Vickerman. Mr. Spencer returns £148 under this heading for exploring and grading roads, running boundaries of old land-claims, reporting on blocks resumed by Crown at Mercury Bay, &c. Mr. J. B. Thomson contributes £86 for this work, being inspection of settlers' holdings for Eanger, estimating kauri for sale, and explorations for roads, Opuawhanga; £50 is Mr. Andrew Wilson's return of " other work," being cost of examining and reporting on 46,000 acres of blocks offered to Land Purchase Board, and also cost of estimating kauri for sale. Inspection. —A large portion of Mr. L. Cussen's time, and also that of Mr. H. D. M. Haszard, has been taken up with the inspection of mining surveys in the Hauraki Peninsula. The numerous and grave errors disclosed by such examinations is a full justification of the large cost of such work, which has amounted to £609. The area of mining claims covered by such inspections was about 12,000 acres, or about £5 for every inspection of each separate mining claim. This amount is certainly a fair charge against the Mines Department, being done entirely in the interests of the mining community. This is outside the cost of all the triangulation used for the same purpose. Office. Work. —All the office records are well up to date, though at least twenty of our recordmaps of survey districts require redrawing, owing to the paper having perished through damp. It is also desirable that the record-maps should be still further completed by recording upon them all the old Crown grants issued before 1875, and to do this in at all a complete manner would require two more experienced draughtsmen for at least two years. It is also highly desirable that topographical maps should be drawn for all districts in which the topography is shown upon the office block sheets, and this would occupy another good draughtsman for a year at least. The Native Land Court plans, orders of Court, original and subdivisional, take up the entire time of one recording draughtsman. One hundred and eighty of these plans have been dealt with during the year, recorded on block sheets and record-maps. Three hundred and fifty-nine plans have been placed on orders of Court and fifty-six plans placed on fifty-six land purchase deeds. The other matters are dealt with in my land report. Work in Progress. —There is now in hand in process of subdivision 124,000 acres, mostly in heavy forest country, scattered over the district, and in addition to this I trust shortly to put in hand about 100,000 more acres in Kawhia County out of the lands lately acquired by the Crown. This work will be pushed on with all possible speed so soon as the main lines of road have been selected, graded, and surveyed, and I trust to have at least six surveyors engaged shortly on this work. Gebhabd Muellek, Chief Surveyor.

HAWKB'S BAY. Minor Triangulation and Topographical Survey. —No work under this heading has been undertaken, the triangulation having been completed throughout the district. Mr. Eoddick broke down from the major sides in the Tahora Block, and extended some minor triangulation to govern his Native Land Court surveys, but this work cannot be classed" as triangulation proper. Rural and Suburban. —The area surveyed is 8,075 acres, at an average cost of 05.'97 an acre, the surveys being very scattered. Mr. Llewellyn Smith surveyed 500 acres, this being a selection in the Motu district; and Mr. Hay 918 acres, being a portion of the Tiratu Block, near Dannevirke, which was cut up for settlement. At Tomoana 112 acres, surveyed by Mr. Brook, is situated near Hastings, and is all taken up. In the Norsewood and Tautane districts 645 acres were surveyed by Mr. Stevenson for settlement, and 5,900 acres in the Poverty Bay district, surveyed by Mr. Eoddick, this being a portion of the Maraetaha Block, which was opened for settlement. In this survey the roads and periphery survey had been completed, Mr. Eoddick only having put in the section- and ranging-pegs, which accounts for the low cost of this work—viz., os. - 20 an acre. All these surveys, with the exception of Tomoana, were in rough forest country. Native Land Gourt Surveys. —There have been 17,795 acres surveyed, at a cost of l'64d. per acre, 6,124 acres of this being a topographical survey made by Mr. Wheeler, of the Mangahawini Block, for purposes of the Native Land Court, and 11,671 acres, being one of the subdivisions of Tahora No. 2 Block, surveyed by Mr. Eoddick, who has also completed the field-work of 122,329 acres, subdivisional survey of Tahora No. 2 Block, but, owing to the plans not being completed, it cannot be returned, and its cost is shown in " Other work," which will be carried on to next year. Authorised surveyors have surveyed thirty-nine blocks, of a total area of 69,878 acres, the cost of which is paid by the Native owners. Road Surveys. —Nineteen miles and three-quarters have been surveyed, nineteen miles of it being an engineering survey of a portion of the Gisborne-Waikaremoana Eoad by Mr. Mouat, at a cost of £28 4s. a mile, and three-quarters of a mile of ordinary road survey by Mr. Hay, at a cost of £17 18s. Bd. per mile. Mr. Mouat has also completed the field-work of twenty-six miles of the Gisborne-Waikaremoana Eoad, but, owing to the plans not being completed, it cannot be returned, and its cost is shown in " Other work " and will be carried on to next year. Other surveys which cannot be returned, but cost of which is included in " Other work," are the exploration for a stocktrack between Ngatapa and Euatahuna by Mr. Llewellyn Smith, who has explored and located the road, the distance being about thirty-four miles, and he is now engaged cutting it out; and Mr. Stevenson's survey of twelve miles of the Apiti-Norsewood Eoad, plans of which are not completed. Other Work. —Under this heading is included field inspections and works of a miscellaneous nature, which cannot be classed under any of the usual headings. The total is £3,877 11s. 6d., of which £3,360 6s. 6d. will be carried on to next year, that amount being the cost of surveys alone. The field-work of this is complete, but as it has not been mapped it cannot be returned.