66

NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

required to protect the bank near the sea might not more
advantageously be applied in opening and forming the streets
of the town in the upper part, as it was originally planned. A
natural bank acts as a breakwater to protect the banks some
distance below, and it though it is covered in floods it could be
added to at a moderate expense. Wharfs could stand safely
under the lee of the bank referred to, and there is ample draught
of water for shipping.

VII. Buildings.—Westport.—The extension of the gaol is the
only new work required at Westport. The building now
existing was originally intended as a lock-up merely. It has
subsequently been used as a gaol for the protection of prisoners
for all the stations on the South-west Goldfields. The extension
required is four additional cells, a kitchen, and wash-house, and
Gaoler's quarters, estimated at £400.

Charleston.—An addition to the Court-house has been long
needed, and is more especially on the session of the District
Court at Charleston. Additions and alterations estimated at
£350.

Grey.—A Lock-up and Police quarters at Nelson Creek has
been a want severely felt, the constable having been unable a
times to find any place in which to secure a prisoner. Esti-
mated, £100.

The new rush at Napoleon Hill promises to be one of the
most important mining centres on the Coast, and it is pro-
bable a Lock-up there cannot long be dispensed with. Estimate
as above, £100.

Maintenance of Existing Buildings, Painting, Repairs, &c.
—Most of the buildings at Charleston and Brighton, including
the Warden's house at the latter place, and the buildings on
the Camp reserve at Cobden and Ahaura will require painting
during the ensuing year; various other repairs and fittings will
be required in all parts of the Goldfields, for which I cannot
reckon less £1000.

Total for buildings, repairs and fittings, £1950.

ESTIMATES FOR PUBLIC WORKS.

My estimates for the public works for the financial year
ending March 31st 1870, stand thus:—

1st Roads in Buller Valleys ... ... £5,050
2nd Roads in Grey Valleys ... ... 9,350
3rd Roads on the Seaboard ... ... 3,300
4th Branch roads to New Diggings ... 2,000
5th Streets and local improvements ... 1,000
6th Harbor and Signal Stations ... 1,250
7th Buildings, repairs and fittings ... 1,950

Total for West Coast public works ... £23,900

This does not include any provision for the protection of the banks
of the Buller. I have also refrained from making reference to the
Brunner mine and railway, since I have had no official connec-
tion with the working of the mine, and any proposition touching
the railway, in the present stage of the question, belongs more
to the Warden's Department than mine.

I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
J. HENRY LOWE,
District Engineer,
South-west Goldfields.

COBDEN, 31st March, 1869.

DISTRICT SURVEYOR'S REPORT—NELSON SOUTH—
WEST GOLDFIELDS.

TO THE PROVINCIAL SECRETARY, NELSON.

SIR,—I have the honor to forward, for the information of his
Honor the Superintendent, a report of the Survey Department
on the South-west Goldfields for the past financial year,
together with suggestions relative to the working of it during
the ensuing year.

2. In the earlier part of the past year there were only two
   Surveyors upon the staff—the District Surveyor stationed at
   Westport, and an Assistant Surveyor on the Grey. Private
   Surveyors were engaged, as their services were required, at the
   Buller and Charleston. During the latter part of the year a
   Mining Surveyor was regularly engaged at Charleston for the
   work on that field by the work done.

3. The office work of the Central Survey Office at Westport
   very greatly increased this year so that the District Surveyor
   was much less able than formerly to attend to the field and
   mining work. It was on this account that private Surveyors
   were occasionally employed at the Buller in mining work, and
   the general surveys were not proceeded with to any extent.

4. In December 1868, the Government appointed an assistant
   Surveyor for the Buller district, which was a great acquisition
   to the staff, for not only did he execute satisfactorily the mining
   work, which had been very imperfectly done by private Sur-

veyors previously, but he also resumed and carried on the
general surveys of the district.

5. It was represented to the Government that a similar
   arrangement would be highly beneficial in the Charleston
   district, and that is now provided, so that the existing staff
   consisting of a district Surveyor and Draughtsman, and three
   assistant Surveyors, will, I think, prove very efficient.

6. To ensure the greatest possible efficiency, it is doubtless
   the most important matter to ascertain and define a complete
   system under which the exertions of each may be directed to
   one common purpose.

7. Such a system I have the honor now to propose. I will
   first suggest a general plan on which I consider the Survey
   department should be conducted, and the work proposed to be
   done, and the end to be attained. And secondly, the staff
   required and estimated cost of it.

8. I have always considered the object to be obtained by a
   Government Survey Establishment is not only to define the
   position and boundaries of various blocks of land, but also to
   form such maps as may portray faithfully the natural features
   of the country, for the purpose of affording a knowledge of the
   capabilities of it, which can be attained in no other way.

The public, for the most part, have very imperfect ideas of
the country, and the maps existing are very incomplete. Some
good general map of the Goldfields is especially wanted, copies
of which should be open for the inspection of the public in the
various offices of each of the Warden's districts. These maps
should indicate the position of all surveyed lands disposed of,
or for sale or lease; showing the towns, roads, rivers, and
ranges, plains, terraces, and bush, and some general description
of the soil. Showing also the Gold-diggings, past and present.
Such information would obviously be of incalculable advantage
to all—travellers, prospectors, and the explorers.

There has been a great deal of surveying, and yet these
objects are very far from having been attained, and the reason,
I submit, has been the want of a comprehensive system on
which the surveys are to be conducted, and in the meanwhile
each surveyor has done his work in a manner intelligible only
to himself, having no real connection with the work of others,
and so the whole is disjointed, confused, and comparatively
useless.

9. In proposing a plan for the systematic working of the sur-
   veys, I do not ask anything of a trigonometrical survey, as I
   suppose the funds available for West Coast surveys will be
   insufficient to admit of it; but there are other systems more
   economical, if less perfect, which would at least make somewhat
   to be achieved.

10. MAIN TRAVERSE SURVEY.—I propose to have a traverse
    made in a complete circuit round the Coast, Grey Valley, Inan-
    gahua, and Buller, to be carefully taken on the ground, and
    afterwards resolved by calculations, so as to work its own proof.
    When this has been done with tolerable success it should be
    plotted on a general map. It would be carried on in three
    divisions simultaneously.

11. From Inangahua Saddle to the Totara River.

12. From Totara to Cobden.

13. From Cobden to Inangahua.
    Each division being executed by the Surveyor of the district
    respectively.

FIXED POINTS.—In the survey of this traverse permanent
marks, easily defined, in survey situations, are to be left not
more than three or four miles apart, so that the district staff
take long to accomplish this. There would be a framework
upon which each successive survey could be hung. Every fixed
point in the circuit becomes available as a new starting point
for extending or amplifying the surveys. And these stations are
to be accurately defined on the general map, and numbered
consecutively.

11. Uniform system of field books kept by Surveyors.—In
    taking the field notes for this main traverse, and all surveys
    connected with it, which are to make up the general survey,
    describe, the Surveyor should observe a uniform plan, so that
    the work of any one Surveyor can by continued by another
    without any difficulty.

12. Connections with old surveys.—The old surveys of
    sections in various districts would be readily connected with
    the main traverse, and thus all the surveys would become
    reduced to order and their value immensely increased.

13. Wardens' Surveys.—The Surveyor appointed to do this
    work would have to use it for a day or so, whenever required
    by the Wardens for mining surveys, which should always com-
    mand immediate attention, but the Surveyor would leave
    sufficient work to engage his men until the Surveyor would leave
    great deal of useful work would be got through. When called
    away to mining work the general object would still be kept in
    view; for the Surveyor should be required to adhere to regula-
    tions in regard to mining surveys to be framed to that end,
    that is to say:—

14. All Sections to be connected.—If possible every surveyed
    section, whether for agricultural lease, gold-mining lease or