✨ Survey Operations Report
209
RETURN OF SURVEY OPERATIONS FOR THE SEASONS 1857-58, 1858-59, 1859-60, 1860-61, AND 1861-62.
| SEASONS. | RECONNAISSANCE. | TRIANGULATION AND MAIN CIRCUIT SURVEY. | RURAL SECTION. AVERAGE SIZE, 80 ACRES. | TOWN SECTION. AVERAGE SIZE (CITY AND TOWN) OF 100 ACRES. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AREA ACRES. | ACTUAL COST £. s. d. | RATE. s. d. | AREA ACRES. | |
| 1857-58 | 7,588,480 | 1000 0 0 | 0 0 1¼ | 17,920 |
| 1858-59 | 147,815 | |||
| 1859-60 | 506,880 | |||
| 1860-61 | 566,400 | |||
| 1861-62 | 926,440 | 343 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 254,080 |
REMARKS.—It will be observed from the above that the cost of Reconnaissance (a most useful preliminary survey for settling pastoral runs, boundaries of districts, and general routes) is merely nominal. The cost of Triangulation is 1d. to 1½d. per acre. The stations average 9½ miles apart, and on these are based all land measurements. The cost of Rural Section is 6¼d. to 8¾d. per acre, the average size being 80 acres. The cost of Town Section Survey varies from 18s. 2¼d. to 34s. 9d. per acre. Thus it would not do to strike an average of all classes of survey in the year, as the Reconnaissance would unfairly reduce the rate, and Town Section as unfairly increase it. It is Triangulation and Rural Section Survey that are meant when the cost of the survey of a colony is spoken of; in Otago these include road lines (main, district, and occupation), ferry sites, town sites, &c., which I think is all that is included in the annexed return for Victoria.
In South Australia, which from the first has had the advantage of a correct system of survey, as described in the work of Captain Frome, R.E., the cost of Triangulation was only ½d. per acre, and of Rural Section 3d. to 4d. per acre, but these prices ruled before the discovery of gold in Australia, and consequently when labour was cheap. The trig. points were at 7 mile distances instead of 9½ miles, as with us, which materially reduces their cost.
In New South Wales it appears from a Report of a Commission of Enquiry into the Survey Department, dated 11th August, 1855, that no regular system of survey was maintained in that Colony; the survey officers seem to have been employed in marking out spotting claims, without connexion. This had induced great confusion in titles, and litigation. The cost of this species of survey was executed at a rate varying from 1s. 11d. to 6s. 8½d. per acre.
From the Report of the Surveyor-General of Victoria (1859-60) the survey of Victoria seems to have been conducted in the same manner as that of New South Wales, his description of which is somewhat deplorable; and to remedy this he proposed to substitute a general system called “Geodetic.” Though I could not recommend the system for adoption here, either in principle or detail, yet if persevered in, it will supply a great desideratum — that is, it gives known and undisputable land-marks, on which subsequent sectional surveys are based, and to be referred to for adjusting obliterated boundaries. These land-marks serve the same purpose as our trig. stations, and are placed 6 miles apart,
Next Page →
Otago Provincial Gazette 1862, No 217
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🗺️
Return of Survey Operations for Seasons 1857-58 to 1861-62
(continued from previous page)
🗺️ Lands, Settlement & Survey12 September 1862
Survey Operations, Reconnaissance, Triangulation, Rural Survey, Town Survey, Cost Analysis, Otago, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales