C—lα.

16

APPENDIX 11.

The Chief Draughtsman, Mr. M. C. Smith, reports as follows : — Mr. H. T. McCardell, Chief Draughtsman, retired on superannuation after forty years" service on the 31st December, 1913, and Mr. H. Farquhar became Acting Chief Draughtsman until the end of January, when the duties were taken up by me. Among the new maps completed for publication during the year the more important are those of the Boroughs of Wanganui, New Plymouth, and Otahuhu, sheet 5 of the Auckland Land District, sheet 3, Grey County, and a number of survey districts brought up to date, together with a map of the Island of Rarotonga. A large map of Greater Wellington is also nearing completion, and will be published during the coming year, as also will a new map of New Zealand, the first issue of which will be on the international scale of one-millionth, although in some other respects it will not conform exactly to the International Map Committee's rules, having been laid down before their adoption. This map will also give some of the early French explorers' names upon the coast-line. Eleven schedules for the Local Bills Committee were examined and certified to; several county maps were renewed; some thirty loan-block maps, with an index map to the whole of those in the Dominion; twenty-one registration district maps, Forestry Commission maps, and a number of miscellaneous drawings for photo-lithography, including specimens for an investigation into possible extensions of that process for departmental work, were made. Work in connection with the examinations for licensed surveyors and Mines Department examinations was also performed. Thirteen surveyors' bands were tested and certified to, some 103 technical descriptions of districts made, and various computations. Departmental transactions in land and new surveys were also recorded upon the general maps to date; large numbers of lithographs were sold; 646 maps were mounted; sixty-four odd plans and 216 town plans were traced. Two hundred and forty-three plans of new " towns " under the Land Act were received and examined prior to submission for the Governor's approval. Alterations in the rooms occupied by the draughting staff were ordered by the Accommodation Board, and have been practically completed, but entailed considerable temporary inconvenience and difficulty during their progress, much of which is still imposed by the non-comple-tion of necessary fittings for displaced records. During the short time I have been in charge of this branch I have had much reason to thank the officers for the assistance readily given by all. The retirement of my predecessor, Mr. McCardell, lost to the Department one of its bestknown officers and finest draughtsmen, who had been identified with this branch since 1879, when he was transferred from, the Christchurch office to the Head Office staff. In his long period of service he was under all the departmental heads since the provincial offices were brought under central control under the late Mr. J. T. Thomson, Surveyor-General; lie was contemporary and collaborator with men who were, from their positions, known in district offices from end to end of New Zealand, and it will be long before his name will be forgotten.