Auckland Provincial Government Gazette.

247

A change, therefore, in the then existing mode of preparing blocks of land for sale was deemed imperatively necessary, and to meet the financial circumstances of the Department the following economical but undesirable expedient was reluctantly resorted to:—Large tracts of land, varying in size from 8,000 to 15,000 acres, were divided on the ground by means of a series of road traverse surveys, and also in addition by one, two, or more main divisional lines—into blocks averaging from 1,000 to 1,500 acres each, leaving the sectional subdivisions of these areas into allotments of 40 acres and multiples of that quantity to be schemed out on the surveyor’s plan, and thus, in due course, be readily alterable to suit the requirements of immigrant purchasers, the extent of whose claims could not be ascertained until their arrival in the country, an event which generally took place after the land had been got ready for settlement.

Upon this, then, and the previously mentioned methods—accompanied by the application of such tests in the field as the circumstances of each survey would admit—a very large extent of the Provincial estate, North and South of Auckland, has been surveyed.

It will thus be seen that from the commencement obstacles, exceedingly difficult of removal, have persistently stood in the way of the initiation of a sound system of survey in relation to Provincial lands.

Nevertheless, I should not wish to be understood to imply that many of the surveys performed even under the foregoing system are not in themselves practically correct, knowing, as I do, that several members of the profession upon whose unquestionable ability, honesty, and carefulness, reliance may be placed, were employed in their execution.

But, besides the impediments to accuracy of system already mentioned, there should also be added the following equally deserving of attention:—1st. That Provincial surveys have for the greater part, been confined to those portions of the Province which are acknowledged to be the most hilly, densely wooded, and difficult of access. 2nd. That the earlier land purchases of the Government consisted of detached blocks with large tracts of native country intervening, and that such was the state of the native mind at the time that any attempt on the part of surveyors to intrude upon their territory for the purpose of erecting stations or performing connecting surveys of any kind was liable to be, and was in some instances actually resisted.

Having thus briefly alluded to the practice of surveying pursued, I feel that I should be wanting in justice to the Chief Surveyors during whose term of office it obtained, if I did not say that its introduction was attributable, not to incompetence or an absence of energy on their part to initiate and carry out a perfect system, but merely to the peculiar condition and exigencies of the Province.

The whole system as above described in its progressive stages has been one of expediences. Admittedly imperfect from its inception, the evil consequences of its defects becoming daily more apparent with little prospect of emendation, added also to the urgent increasing demands for land by settlers, the system seemed placed beyond the redemption of professional skill, so long as the appropriations made available for survey purposes by Government remained totally inadequate.

Plotting, Drafting, &c.

The manner of laying down work, or plotting, has been, as a general rule, performed by angular protraction; and as surveys in this Province have to a very great extent been carried on under what is called the contract system, each surveyor was required, as a condition of his contract, to plot, draft, and furnish a finished plan of his work on its completion; so that by far the largest proportion of the Provincial survey records now extant may be said to consist of plans so supplied. These, on their receipt in the survey department, were invariably subjected to examination, and if found to be defective returned as a matter of course to the surveyor for rectification. An inspection also of the work in the field was made prior to final payment for the same. Areas have generally been computed by the most expeditious method that could be employed (usually the reduction of irregular figures to triangles and trapeziums), the pressing necessities of the hour precluding frequent recourse to the longer but accurate process of calculation by the adaptation of traverse tables. Areas so arrived at were, however, always twice computed, first by the surveyor, and secondly by an officer of the survey department. Where any disagreement occurred, a third party was called upon to decide.

No. 2.—Triangulation.

With the exception of a minor triangulation of exceedingly small extent (from 50,000 to 60,000 acres) conducted upon the principle and basis of the major trigonometrical survey now being carried on under the auspices of the General Government, no systematic triangulation of the country over which Provincial surveys extend has yet been undertaken by the Province.

Of the details of the minor triangulation referred to, unfortunately no perfect record now remains, the whole of the field books and finished plans in connection with it having been lost in the fire of the Government Buildings in November, 1872.

No. 3.—Diagrams of State of Field Survey and Mapping.

The information required under this head is exhibited on plans annexed lettered A and B.

No. 4.—Specimens of Maps.

Specimens appended.

No. 5.—M.S. Surveys.

None of the M.S. Surveys, of which a large number had accumulated prior to November, 1872, are now extant, having been destroyed in the fire of the Provincial Offices in that year.

The loss of these, however, is not likely to be productive of much inconvenience, inasmuch as the plans prepared from them exhibit, in accordance with a custom long obtaining in the department, all the survey details embodied in the original manuscripts. From a large portion of these, therefore, the elements necessary for the production of a re-plot will be found to be available if required.

No. 6.—Surveying Instruments.

The Provincial Government possess no instruments available for employment in the execution of a secondary or tertiary triangulation.