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Miscellaneous. —The usual demands made on the office staff were attended to, comprising the supplying of information to the general public, tracings for Rangers and selectors, and diagrams and tracings to illustrate letters to Head Office for proclamation purposes. Fifty-nine complete sets of field data were supplied to staff and contract surveyors, and all necessary data for ElthamOpunake—Moturoa Railway route were supplied to the Public Works Department; while 153 special tracings from Land Transfer records were made for the Public Trust Office for revaluation of West Coast settlement leases. For the Valuer-General 152 tracings were made, while the total of tracings for selectors, Rangers, and illustrating tracings for Chief Surveyor, Head Office, and proclamation, &c, numbered 220. All recording on existing block sheets, Crown grant, 40-chain record maps,- reserves, index, and laud-tenure and wall maps was kept up to date, but there was no one available to prepare many new maps that are urgently needed, and I should be glad to see the draughting and computing staff strengthened by two more draughtsmen and a cadet. Native. Land Court. —The sum of £2,816 16s. has been received from owners and lessees of Native lands in payment of survey charges, &c, where costs were previously advanced by the Crown. Two hundred and fifteen plans (made by the staff, and not, as in previous years, by contract) have been endorsed and forwarded, covering an area of 77,097 acres, and 141 Native Land Court plans have been forwarded to the Registrars of Native Land Courts during the year for Native Land Court use or Judge's approval thereto. The outward correspondence under this head necessitated some 620 letters being drafted. Vouchers for payment to surveyors for survej's completed and approved have been prepared, and the usual detail work necessary has been attended to. The usual assistant to the Native Land Court Draughtsman was absent for four months on sick-leave. Proposed Operations for 191b—15• —A staff of four permanent surveyors, with two cadets and two temporal assistant surveyors, are at present engaged upon settlement surveys (including road access thereto through adjacent Native lands) along the eastern, north-eastern, and northwestern boundaries of this land district. The total area to be covered by these operations amounts to 78,000 acres, of which 34,000 acres is completed in the field, and litho tracings have been or will shortly be prepared for issue of sale maps, thus leaving 44,000 acres of new country on hand for the coining season 1914—15, situated in Mapara, Aria, Waro, Mimi, Pahi, Piopiotea West, Ohura, Waro, Pouatu, and Mahoe Survey Districts. Changes of Staff. —Owing to ill health Mr. F. J. Harrop was advised to try a change of climate from here to Auckland office, and Mr. Vaile, from Dunedin, took his place. Mr. Cadet Hancock joined the field staff under Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Hudson, of the clerical staff, became a draughting cadet. Mr. W. F. Gordon, after a long and faithful service of over forty years, obtained three months' leave from the Ist March preparatory to retiring on pension; while several other officers were absent on extended sick-leave ranging from one to four months, consequently the output of work has not been so great as I could have wished. The field staff had the disadvantage of experiencing very wet weather in the early part of the year, and this has retarded the output of work and made their duties more arduous. In the office, owing to sickness, the staff has been shorthanded at times, and extra assistance is needed, but the Chief Draughtsman, Mr. Lowe, has made it his business to meet the most urgent demands first, but such things as the preparation of new block sheets have had to stand aside. The staff as a whole has attended to duty in its usual efficient manner. G. H. BULLARD, Chief Surveyor.

WELLINGTON. Triangulation. —No work of this class has been undertaken during the past year, as the services of Mr. Girdlestone, who had been engaged for several seasons upon an extensive scheme of secondary triangulation, were urgently required in connection with ordinary settlement surveys. The pressing need for his attention in this direction is for the present over, and he has returned to the Head Office to resume his triangulation surveys. Standard Survey. —No work returnable under this heading was done during the year, Mr. Mountfort, District Surveyor, generally employed on it, having been occupied on similar work in another land district. However, there is nothing to be done requiring much urgency, and what there is can easily await the convenience of the Department. Topographical Survey. —The only work appearing under this head is a " paddock survey " of the Weraroa State Farm at Levin, but the field-work of 82,000 acres of Native land was completed by Mr. Blake, and will appear in next year's return. Rural. —An area of 26,163 acres is returned under this head, of which some 6,500 acres are now under occupation, with the probability of the remainder being offered for settlement within the next three or four months. At the present time three staff surveyors have on hand an area of 30,800 acres, which I expect will be completed and opened for selection before the close of 1914. (Note. —The Poroporo Settlement, of about 9,450 acres, was settled during the year, but is not included in the 26,163 acres returned by surveyor, because the plans are not finished.) Town Surveys. —There has been no work of this description extensive enough to warrant a particular reference, as any small sections have either been pegged off by the Inspecting Surveyor or by a staff surveyor, who includes such survey in his " other work " column. Native Land Court Survey. —The total area surveyed during the year under the authority of the Native Land Court was 65,785 acres, of which all but 1,328 acres was accounted for by

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