I T is hereby notified that a Writ, issued for the elec-
tion of a person to serve as Member of the
Provincial Council for the Tokomairiro District, in
place of William John Dyer, Esquire, resigned, has
been duly returned, with a certificate to the effect that
Adam Landels, Esquire, has been duly returned.

FREDERICK J. MOSS,
For Provincial Secretary.
1st September 1866.

SURVEY REPORT for the year ending 30th June,
1866, published for general information.

FREDERICK J. MOSS,
For Provincial Secretary.

Survey Office, Dunedin,
20th August, 1866.

To the Provincial Secretary.

Sir,—I have the honor of forwarding to you the
Annual Return of work (marked A) executed by the
Surveyors of this Department during the year ending
30th June last.

The Return shows 495 square miles of minor
triangulation, 72,083 acres of rural section survey,
and 427 allotments surveyed in various townships.

The primary operations that will henceforth regulate
and govern all survey operations in this Province, I
am happy to state, have now been completed by Mr.
M’Kerrow, in so far as is at present necessary, the
strip of precipitous land on the West Coast alone
remaining, but which does not yet call for survey.

The cost of Mr. M’Kerrow’s party this year amounts
to £1284 0s. 9d.; and by referring to Return marked
B, the total cost of the geodesical operations have,
from their commencement, amounted to £3735 17s.
These operations have extended over 10,300,000 acres,
so the rate of cost per acre is only 1/30th of a penny.

The 495 square miles of minor triangulation will
be seen to have cost £2615 4s. 11d., or 2¼d. per acre
nearly.

The 72,083 acres of rural section survey have cost
£4463 7s. 7d., or 1s. 2¼d. per acre, while the 427
town allotments, generally ¼ of an acre each, or less
in size, have cost £397 14s. 6d., or £3 14s. 6d. per acre nearly.

Regarding the cost of the geodesical survey, so
as it has gone, it will be seen that it is scarcely appre-
ciable on the rate per acre. The operations have been
confined to obtaining the latitudes, longitudes, and
true meridians by an 8-inch altitude and azimuth
instrument at several primary stations.

From these primary stations, standard or ruling
bearings have been carried from point to point, gene-
rally 12 miles apart over all districts. As these points
or stations are accessible to all surveyors in different
parts of the Province wherever employed, they can now
proceed with their work correctly, and without error
or difference. A map of these standard bearings is
now in course of publication, so that the benefit of
Mr. M’Kerrow’s labors will be at the easy command
of all. Besides the above operations standard lengths,
carefully adjusted, have been laid down at the principal
townships, so that surveyors may regulate their
chains.

The variation of the compass has also been observed at
the various stations. All has therefore been done that
is absolutely called for in practical settlement or
Colonial survey. It might appear desirable to devel-
ope the work into a general or major triangulation of
the Province, but this would be pursuing the work on
scientific grounds alone; and on such grounds I could
not support it, as I account a major triangulation, as a
work of science, of little value without the further
more delicate and costly process of great triangulation,
to which the major triangulation would take the place
of a secondary operation, and be regulated by it.

I annex Mr. M’Kerrow’s report on his last year’s
work in full, by which the care, patience, and skill
with which he has pursued his labors, under many
difficulties, discouragements, and, not to mention
perils, during these last three years, will be apparent to
Government.

The work as it now stands, if it goes no further,
will be a lasting monument of his services to this
Department, and I have no doubt will be fully appre-
ciated by those who will reap most benefit, viz.:—the
members of his own profession, and the settlers whose
properties can now be surveyed without fear of errors
and law disputes.

The minor triangulation has not proceeded so fast
this year. This is principally owing to the absence of
Mr. Arthur, and the employment of Mr. Howden on
the West Coast. The cost is somewhat above the
average of former years, viz., 2¼d. per acre; but this is
amply accounted for in the rugged nature of the
country submitted to survey.

The rural section survey has this year been con-
ducted on what is colonially called the “spotting
system.” This was made necessary by the change of
measures relating to the sale of land. Land for
several years previous to this had been sold after
section survey. The measures of Council required
that it should be sold indiscriminately after triangu-
lation, and the applications to be surveyed and marked
on the ground according to free selection. While the
new system of survey thus rendered necessary cannot
be held to be so good in a professional point of view
as the previous block or aggregate survey, yet I trust
that such precautions have been taken by the District
Surveyors in selecting roads and reserves, as will
enable me to carry on the present mode of survey
without public loss; and I trust to the general good
ability of the Assistant Surveyors to carry their part
of the work through without more than average error
or overlapping.

The cost of rural section survey, now mostly con-
ducted on the new system, will be seen to exceed the
average of former years, but not very materially,
being 1¼d. over the average per acre last year.

Special surveys of pre-emptive rights have been
executed this year by Messrs. Connell and Mountfort.
As these extend at intervals of 20 and 30 miles all over
the country, the cost is necessarily greater than the
average of the general survey being in one case 5s. 9½d.,
and in the other 7s. 8d. per acre.

I have appended to this report a Return of Work
for these last nine years (marked B) which will serve
to show at a glance the cost of survey as hitherto
executed in this Province.

It will be perceived that the preliminary and regu-
lating surveys, viz., reconnaissance and geodesical, are
nominal in cost per acre; though the advantage that
the same have been scarcely to be estimated, so
much have they promoted, and still do promote,
settlement and survey. The minor triangulation will
be seen to have cost, at the outset, 1¼d. per acre, and
rising, after the discovery of the Gold Fields, from

thereof from time to time, whenever he shall deem it
expedient to do so :

And whereas on the fifth day of January last, I
declared the Provincial Council of Otago to stand
prorogued until Thursday, the thirteenth day of Sep-
tember, then next ensuing;—Now therefore I, the
said Thomas Dick, as such Superintendent of the
Province of Otago, do proclaim and declare that I do
hereby, in exercise of the power vested in me in this
behalf by the said Act, further prorogue the Provincial
Council of the said Province of Otago until the
thirteenth day of October next.

Given under my hand, and issued under the
Public Seal of the Province of Otago,
(L.S.) this thirty-first day of August, one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.

THOMAS DICK,
Superintendent of Otago.

By His Honor’s command,
FREDERICK J. MOSS.