cost of re-purchase of the same; further, from what has transpired since I took charge of the Survey Department, I cannot conceal the result that the two systems of survey cannot go on together—one must give way to the other. The same district cannot be irregularly and incorrectly “spotted” over and be systematically surveyed and marked out at the same time, and the more confusion thus created, the greater will be the burden on the Government to unravel the same; and it will be found at an early date that the complication of titles and disputes in boundaries will demand that the burden of systematic survey be borne by the public, the cost of which will be fivefold more than it could be executed now, unhampered by disputed boundaries and uncertain titles. Again, the Government survey service, under present circumstances, will not maintain itself. I cannot avoid concluding that it must go to the wall, when I note that of the six competent surveyors in the Province, five owe their knowledge of the profession to experience gained in the Government Survey service within these last three years, yet they cannot be retained in the service; the greater profits and independence of the private practice have greater inducements than the Government service affords.

I trust that it will be apparent to the Board, from the above statement, that on grounds of accuracy, expense, and reservation of public rights, the Government Survey Department has the best claim to their support; and it only now remains with me to show that policy and expediency are equally in its favour for the future.

There is an area of 17,000,000 acres in the Province, 10,000,000 of which, in course of time, will be applied for and occupied. The question appears to me to be—How will the survey of this area be best met, by public or private survey? Seeing that they cannot go on together, and when we refer to the accompanying return, and note that two Government surveyors laid off upwards of 67,000 acres last year, while the three private surveyors returned less than 3000 acres, the conclusion need not be suggested. So much for the Province in its future requirements. Then as to present: the applications being confined to the Hundreds, these comprise an area of 908,000 acres. Of these, 260,000 acres have been surveyed, leaving 648,000 acres. Of these, 200,000 acres may be estimated as unavailable for agricultural settlement; 448,000 acres thus remain to be surveyed.

Then is it expedient for the general public to have these surveyed by private survey with the concomitant evils, disjointly and confusedly in the space of half a century, or get the whole completed correctly and systematically in one-twentieth of that time by Government officers? True, the Government service will not comply with the immediate and urgent wants of the solitary village and bush reserve absorbing “spotter,” but it will rapidly over-take the settling of the multitude of the bona fide occupiers and improvers of the soil who congregate in the best districts.

If five assistant surveyors be judiciously directed, applying their energies to the most valuable and most available districts first, they would put our increasing population in possession of the whole in less than three years—the remaining 200,000 acres of the Otago Block in one season, and the 230,000 acres in the Southern Block, in two seasons.

The only objection to systematic survey that has been suggested is, that it does not put the solitary erratic or wandering “spotter” in possession of his claim at once, but defers the marking out of it till the general public is served, and thus injures present revenue to this solitary extent; but can this be stated to be an objection, seeing that the “spotter” absorbs village sites, blocks up roads, and monopolizes bush: immediate possession to him of these can evidently be of no public advantage; and I may suggest that a far greater and more certain revenue would be derived from lands well selected, and made ready for the occupation of the multitude, than can possibly be derived from the “spotter.”

Having thus endeavoured to lay before the Board the present circumstances that affect the survey of this Province, I will await their decision on the course to be adopted by them before laying any plan of survey operations before them for the coming season. Before concluding, I may mention that contract survey has been under consideration. The Province has already had experience of this system. The same objections exist against contract survey as against unsystematic private surveys; besides, for triangulation, village and