74

REPORT of Chief Surveyor on Progress of Surveys, &c.

Survey Office,
Wellington, 16th April, 1872.

SIR,--

I have the honor to forward the following Report on the works performed by the Survey Department during the past financial year.

In the Wairarapa District 3000 acres have been laid out in 60 acre sections, and 9000 acres of old surveys (40 acre sections) have been readjusted. Also, traverses of 8 miles of district roads, and sundry other works of a desultory character, have been executed.

In the Manawatu Block 2,800 acres have been surveyed, in 20 and 40 acre sections, and surveys of about 12,000 acres are in progress.

In the Rangitikei-Manawatu Block sectional surveys of 12,224 acres have been completed, and of about 120,000 acres, inclusive of Colonel Fielding’s block, are in progress. There have also been 14,000 acres of Native Reserves surveyed. The sectional surveys in this district, where the majority of our field parties are employed, were obstructed in the month of October, and they remain so, pending the completion of the Native Reserve surveys, of which about 5,000 acres remain in various stages of progress.

In the Wanganui and Rangitikei Districts, 60 miles of traversing have been completed, preparatory to laying off the unsurveyed selections between the Wanganui and Wangaehu rivers.

In the Wellington Districts, 10,000 acres of old surveys, principally the Harbor and Horokiwi sections, have been readjusted. A trigonometrical survey, which covers some 150,000 acres, has also been executed, and a partial trigonometrical connection between the Wellington and the East and West Coast trigs.

A major triangulation to effect a rigid connection between the East and West Coasts of the Province, is in progress. This work will complete the trigonometrical survey of the Province, as far as Crown Lands are concerned.

Since the commencement of the last financial year, the strength of the Survey Staff has been gradually increased by one District Surveyor, four Assistant Surveyors, two Cadets, four Draughtsmen, and one Lithographer.

The Office Staff have chiefly been engaged in preparing a collated plan of the surveyed lands in the Province, on a scale of one inch to the mile.

The surveys of the following districts have been so reduced:--East Coast, Wairarapa, Rangitikei-Manawatu, Rangitikei, Wanganui, Waitotara.

The surveys of the Wanganui and Rangitikei districts were found to collate imperfectly, and those of the districts around Wellington were quite incapable of being collated. Perfect plans were produced of the East Coast, the Wairarapa, and the Rangitikei-Manawatu districts, which are now in progress of being lithographed.

In recapitulation--There have been surveyed during the year 51,024 acres, and there are 132,000 acres in progress.

There are thirteen parties in the field now, as compared with seven at the commencement of the year. The general plan of the Eastern portion of the Province has been completed, and the Office Staff has been efficiently increased. I have every reason to hope that during the current financial year, a large amount of arrears of surveys and office work will be brought up.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

HENRY JACKSON,

Chief Surveyor.

J. G. Holdsworth, Esq.,
Commissioner Crown Lands, Wellington.

MEMORANDUM by the Chief Surveyor with reference to the desirability of Compiling a New Geographical Map of the Province.

THE Chief Surveyor begs to submit for the consideration of His Honor the Superintendent the desirability of compiling a new Geographical Map of the Province, on a scale of four miles to the inch, for the purpose of being lithographed.

The existing map was drawn in 1862, prior to the execution of any triangulation in the surveys. The information it affords is therefore necessarily very scant, inaccurate, and altogether deficient in topography.