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The tide-tables are also supplied to the Marine Department for their publication in the " New Zealand Nautical Almanac." The prediction for the Wellington tides of 1912 has been finished, and the analysis of the Auckland tides is now in progress. The other ports where there are automatic tide-gauges will be dealt with in turn. A line of precise levels has been run from the Wellington tidegauge on the Jervois Quay wharf to the tide-gauge at Seatoun, and permanent concrete bench-marks have been established at frequent intervals along the sea-shore, between the gauges. (5.) Revision of Coastal Surveys. The Department is constantly revising the Admiralty charts of the coast of New Zealand, as detail sectional surveys of land around the coasts become available. At present no officers are specially detailed for such surveys, but surveyors working on the coast-lines include this as part of their work. (6.) Board of Examiners. This Board was constituted in 1900, and now holds authority under the Surveyor's Institute and Board of Examiners Act, 1908. In conjunction with the federated Boards of Examiners in Australia, it conducts half-yearly examinations every March and September, and also issues licenses to surveyors, and certificates of competency, inquiries into charges of negligence, inaccurate surveys, &c, and has power to suspend or cancel any surveyor's license. It makes regulations for conducting the examinations, and for the survey of land. The Surveyor-General is the present Chairman of the Board, the Chief Surveyor for the Canterbury Land District is also a member, and the secretary is a permanent officer of the Department. A conference of the Australian and New Zealand Boards in held every three years to discuss matters relating to the profession, the latest having been held in January, 1911, at Hobart. which was attended by the Surveyor-General and Mr. Thomas Humphries (ex-Surveyor-General). The Board will be represented at the Conference of Surveyors-General to be held in London in May, 1911, when the question of Imperial reciprocity in surveyors' licenses will be discussed. Existing reci prooity is limited in its scope, and is practically confined to Australia and New Zealand. (I.) State Forests. The area reserved under the provisions of the State Forests Act, 1908, as on 31st March, 1911. amounted to 2,099,650 acres. States forests are dealt with by the Commissioner of State Forests, who is also Minister of Lands, the several Commissioners of Crown Lands being conservators in their respective districts. The revenue derived from the sales of timber, &c, from these lands during the past year amounted to £15,333. Attached to the State Forests Department, and administered with it. is the Afiorestation Branch, which obtains the moneys necessary for the carrying-out of the operations in its nurseries and plantations from the proceeds of timber-sales in State forests, supplemented' by direct grants from the Consolidated Fund. The amounts derivable from the sales of timber are a diminishing quantity, and it is therefore evident that the extension of afforestation operations will depend upon the amount which can be spared from the Consolidated Fund, and directly appropriated by Parliament. The usual statistical report will be laid before Parliament giving complete details of the work carried on so conscientiously by Messrs. Goudie and Robinson,* Superintending Nurserymen, and their staffs in the North and South Islands respectively. The cordial and effective co-operation of the Prisons Department, under the Under-Secretary for Justice, has been a most important factor in the successful planting operations in the various plantations in which there are prison camps. (J.) Scenery-preservation. The carrying-out of the provisions of the Scenery Preservation Act, 1908, and its important amendment of 1910, is intrusted to the Lands Department, though under the control of a separate Minister. Under the Act a special Board is set up, through which all recommendations to the Minister must come. The Board consists of the Surveyor-General as Chairman, the Undersecretary of, the Native Department as conserving Maori land interests, the General Manager for Tourist and Health Resorts, whose Department is specially interested in conserving the scenery of New Zealand, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands in each district where scenic beauties are to be reserved. The report is laid before Parliament by the Minister in charge.

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