Superintendent’s Office,
Napier, Jan. 29, 1862.

HIS HONOR the Superintendant directs the following reports to be published for general information.

G. T. FANNIN,
Superintendent’s Clerk.

Survey Office, Napier,
January 22nd, 1862.

Sir,—I beg to report to you on the amount of work performed by the Survey Staff during the six months ending December 31st, 1861, giving also the approximate cost per acre of each officer’s work.

Mr. Bousfield, during the last half year has been engaged in the survey of the Ahuriri block, more particularly in the survey of the Pohui and Pakiaka. The cost of his party has been about £420, and the area surveyed about 40,000 acres, or about 2¼d. per acre. A still further outlay will have to be incurred in staking out the available land along the line of road, and of cutting a line through Pohui bush before the sections are submitted to public competition.

Mr. Weber has staked out various selections made by Messrs. Gollan, Stokes, Abbott, Riddiford, T. P. Russell, &c., &c., amounting in all to about 13,000 acres. He has moreover made detail surveys of about 7000 acres on Mr. R. Collins’s run and that of Captain Newman; besides this he has traversed several miles of very rough creeks, &c. His expenditure has been nearly £400, or 4½d. per acre.

Mr. Locke has staked out selections amounting in the aggregate to 12,560 acres of 10s. and 5s. land in a very rough country. He has also surveyed the whole of Colonel Russell’s run, and extended the Trigonometrical Survey. The expenditure of his party has been £320. The rate per acre cannot be estimated, but would be found below 5d. per acre I believe.

Owing to the cordial co-operation I have met with from the different officers of my department, the amount of work performed during the past half year is exceedingly great, when it is taken into account that the inclemency of July and August hindered field operations very materially.

The expenditure of 1861 has been somewhat in excess of my original estimate, chiefly in consequence of my finding it impossible to call in the survey parties during June, July, and August owing to the pressure of work.

Mr. Hughes has been paid the balance of contract due to him of £21 18s.

Mr. H. L. Skeet, balance of his contract survey, £27 11s. 6d., and

Mr. R. M. Skeet, balance of contract survey, £23 2s.

Mr. Bousfield’s work in the Ahuriri block is fast drawing to a close, and I purpose extending his district to the Ruataniwha.

Crown Grants issued are... 480
prepared, ready for issue 426
in Auckland... 18
in hand... 54
to prepare, say... 100

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most Obedient Servant,
H. S. TIFFEN,
Com.of Crown Lands and Chief Prov. Surveyor.

To His Honor
the Superintendent,
Hawke’s Bay.

Engineer’s Office,
Napier, Jan. 27, 1862.

Sir,—I have the honor to submit to you the following report on the present state of the works of this Province under my charge.

During the past very wet Spring, neither the Bridges, Culverts, or formation, suffered any serious injury, and they are now generally in good repair. I much regret that all through the wet season, the lines were fearfully cut up, and that travelling was thus attended with great inconvenience. I apprehend this will be the case, although not to the same extent for some years, whenever the season is unusually wet, owing to the inferior material which is generally procurable for metalling—the extreme narrowness of the Roads confining as it does the wear to only a small surface, and the increased traffic, the effects of which is particularly felt in Winter and Spring, from the heavy loads borne on the bullock-drays with their single pair of narrow-tired wheels. Whenever the wheels break through the road-crust, and any difficulty arises, the drivers of the accompanying drays attach their teams and then the wheels cut through the road as deeply as would the coulter of a subsoil plough.

I should be sorry to recommend anything that would militate against the interest of the owners of these drays, but I think some rule could be laid down for the advantage of all parties, regulating the width of the tires, and the weight of the loads.

After the check to the Works last year, many laborers left the District for other places, and numbers of those who still remained were afterwards attracted to Otago by the Gold Diggings of that Province, leaving very few requiring employment, and rendering it impossible to push forward many useful and necessary works. At one time it was almost impossible to engage sufficient hands for repairs alone, explaining fully why advertisements for Tenders for the execution of Works were so frequently unnoticed.

In referring to the difficulty of carrying on many undertakings, I must not omit the obstruction from the Natives. To such an extent is this now carried on, that Europeans will scarcely be induced, at any price,