CHIEF SURVEYOR’S REPORT.

Chief Surveyor’s Office,
Southland, October 4th, 1870.

To the Superintendent of the Province of Southland.

SIR,—Prior to the annexation of the Province of Southland to Otago, I have the honor to enclose the annual tabular statement of the surveys completed under my direction for the 12 months ended the 31st December, 1869, and for the 9 months ended 30th September, 1870, with a return giving the total amount surveyed each year by the different district surveyors in this Province, appointed under the "Southland Waste Lands Act, 1865," showing the amount of road and river traverses completed in connection therewith. Also a comparative statement of the amount surveyed and total expenditure of the Survey Department for each year under the present and former Land Acts.

The total amount of rural land surveyed under the "Southland Waste Lands Act, 1865," is 235,798 acres, at a cost to the purchasers of £8154, being at an average of less than 8½d per acre on the amount surveyed.

The total cost of the Survey Department, excluding the cost of trigonometrical and additional surveys of reserves, railways, &c., but including otherwise the whole of the salaries, and contingent expenses of the department, for the 4 years and 9 months ending 30th September, 1870, amounts to £4351, or less than 4½d per acre on the amount of rural land surveyed during that period.

This land has been taken up under a Free Selection Land Act in every part of the Province in blocks ranging from 20 to 10,000 acres, the average size being from 200 to 400 acres. 527 miles of road lines have been laid out through these purchases, wherever it was deemed necessary to leave them either for present or future use. Every road laid out under this Act has been inspected by me prior to the survey thereof being passed; any road carelessly or badly selected in the first instance has been re-surveyed by and at the expense of the Surveyor, in whose district it occurred. This to a great extent has prevented the secondary or cross-roads being laid out in impracticable places, which unfortunately was too often done in the block and section surveys when the roads laid out by the surveyors were not inspected prior to the passing of the surveys.

Three hundred and fifty six (356) miles of river traverses have been done, and all the principal topographical features of the land purchased have been fixed by cross-bearings, and sketched in. Every section has been connected with the trigonometrical survey of the district in which it was bought, thus placing at our command data on which to construct a general map of the country showing every section of freehold land in its true geographical position.

It will thus be seen, considering the nature of the surveys, that they have not proved costly either to the purchaser—who, by the provisions of the Land Act, is bound to pay for the actual survey of his land—or to the Government, who must necessarily bear the expense of the supervision thereof, and also the expense of compiling correct records of them for the future use of the public. The average cost of them will bear favorable comparison with the cost of the public surveys of any province in New Zealand, whilst I can confidently affirm they have been carefully executed, and will, I am sure, bear any test as to their correctness.

In introducing the present system of survey, I only followed the leading features of the New South Wales system (i.e., of making it the interest of the surveyor to perform his work faithfully and correctly by insuring him a monopoly of the work in his district at a fixed rate per acre, thus giving him permanent employment during the continuance of the sales of land), and adapting them to the circumstances of a country physically different, and in which other laws were in operation.

I may therefore in justice claim to have organised a good system of survey in this Province, which has worked more economically than perhaps any other system in New Zealand; and the charge formerly brought against it that it would prove both costly in execution and tardy in progress must, now it has had a fair trial, fall to the ground.

The following are the principal surveys remaining to be completed during the present season 27,1870:

• 13,504 acres of rural land, purchased in different parts of the Province; 18,504 acres of this is land taken up under the "Bluff Harbour and Invercargill Railway Contract," which, owing to a dispute between the Government and the Contractors as to the liability of the latter to pay the cost of the survey, has been held over for nearly four years; this dispute having been settled by the Government undertaking to pay one-half of the cost thereof, this work is now in progress.
• 14,548 acres, reserved under the "Win ton Railway and Woodlands Road Contracts," will also probably have to be undertaken this season, making the total amount of rural land to be surveyed about 41,700 acres.

In accordance with instructions received from the General Government, tenders for the re-survey of the Native Reserves on the mainland and on Stewart’s Island, amounting to 6,949 acres, and for 1,214 acres taken up under the "Land Claims Settlements Act" on that island, have been called for, and one accepted. The work is now in progress, and will, I hope, be completed early this summer. The question of the liability of the Provincial or General Government to pay the cost of these surveys remains for discussion; the General Government having in the meanwhile undertaken to provide the funds for carrying on the work to the amount of £600. As soon as they are completed the land on Stewart’s Island can be opened for free selection.

A re-survey of several of the old road lines in the hundreds is most urgently required; in many cases they appear to have been laid out by the section surveyors, with the sole view of subdividing the land into suitable rectangular blocks, without the slightest reference to the nature of the ground or natural features of the country. In several cases these roads have been put into such utterly impracticable places that they never can be made without an enormous outlay, quite beyond the means of the settlers, many of whom are at present entirely dependent on the good-will of their neighbours to allow them to pass through private property to get their produce to a market. I have, during part of the present year, employed Mr Hately in rectifying and laying out several of these road lines again. On these alterations I shall have the honor to send you a special report.

The Australasian and New Zealand Land Company, who hold large blocks of land, bought under the former Land Act of this Province, are willing to allow suitable roads to be taken through their unimproved properties where required, if the Government will legally close the unused and impracticable ones. I estimate that more than 65 miles of road lines that will never be used, can be closed in their