117

NEW ZEALAND.

OTAGO
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

VOL. XIII. DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1869. No. 613.

[WITH SUPPLEMENT.]

HIS HONOR the Deputy-Superintendent directs it to be notified that he will receive Deputations at 2 o’clock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. A statement of the nature of the business intended to be brought before His Honor, must be left at the Superintendent’s office at least one day previous to the day on which the Deputations fix for calling.

JOHN LOGAN,
Secretary to the Superintendent.

9th June, 1869.

HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT directs the publication of the following Report for general information.

3rd June, 1869.

Survey Office,
Dunedin, Feb. 22, 1869.

Sir,—In laying the report on Preservation Inlet before you, I beg to state that plans of the work executed will be prepared as soon as possible, all my time there being fully occupied with the field work and calculations, leaving the mapping to be done in the office on my return.

The base line is only over half a mile in length, being as long as could be got. It is nearly level, and mostly on the sand between low and high water marks. I made 14 Trig Stations, scattered over an area of over 24 square miles. The nature of the country required so many, to prevent losing more time cutting down bush to see greater distances. I found it impossible to arrange the trigs so as every side of the triangles could be observed, finding the bearing of the third side occasionally by calculation.

Convenient to the camp I selected a spot for a Trig Station, where I took all the astronomical observations. I connected it to Table Rock and Cuttle Cove, two of Capt. Stokes’s positions, by a series of triangles, determining its latitude and longitude by Plane Trigonometry. Therefrom I started the Survey on the true Meridian, which I found by taking equal altitudes and azimuths of Rigel, Zeta Orionis, and Procyon, and by way of check taking several sets of forenoon and afternoon observations of the sun.

Accompanying the report are tables of three months’ meteorological observations. Mr. Skey has supplied me with the means of his observations for the same time, and a comparison may not be uninteresting:

PRESERVATION INLET. DUNEDIN.
Bar. Ther. Rain. Bar. Ther. Rain.
Nov. 29.80 52 9.40 ... 29.79 54 1.72
Dec. 29.68 52 11.79 ... 29.65 55 2.25
Jan. 29.86 55½ 6.59 ... 29.88 57 3.52

The total Rainfall for a period of 91 days is within a fraction of 30 inches. There were only 28 days during this time on which no rain fell, yet notwithstanding this there were no more than five days on which no outside work was done.

A. JOHNSTON,
Assistant Surveyor.

SURVEYOR’S REPORT ON PRESERVATION INLET.

The s.s. Taiaroa, commanded by Captain Tall, and having on board Captain Thomson, Harbor Master, and the Government survey party, after a passage of three days, calling on the way at Port Molyneux, Waikawa, and Bluff Harbor, where she lay a day windbound, arrived in Preservation Inlet on Saturday night, 7th Nov., 1868. Although quite dark, the Taiaroa steamed into the Inlet, by the northern or main entrance, anchoring in a small bay where there has been formerly a whaling station, close under Steep-to or Crayfish Island. All Sunday the steamer lay at anchor. On Monday morning, she steamed round the Island to the southern shore of the other entrance, and landed the surveying instruments and stores on a fine sandy beach, which had been selected as a camping place. After a short cruise up the Sound, the Taiaroa left for Dunedin.