498 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Since writing the above I have perused quite a number of 

 papers and reports on the question of a primary survey for 

 New Zealand, of date 1875 or earlier, and chiefly to be found 

 in vols. viii. and ix. of the " Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute," and in the Appendices to tbe Journals of the 

 House of Bepresentatives down to and including vol. ii., 

 1875. All the writers agreed as to the necessity of an 

 accurate governing triangulation, but some of them ques- 

 tioned the advisability of undertaking the work at that 

 date — viz., twenty-six years ago. The two objections raised 

 were — (1) The delays that would be caused if settlement sur- 

 veys had to wait on primary surveys ; and (2) the cost. The 

 first objection has entirely disappeared, and the second is now 

 largely modified. Mr. J. T. Thomson estimated the cost of a 

 complete scheme of survey at £303,000 ; but he spoke of the 

 work lasting seventy-five years, of the use of a 36 in. theodo- 

 lite, requiring twenty-seven men for its transport, and other ex- 

 pensive methods, all of which have been rendered obsolete by 

 the use of modern appliances. In 1875 Major Palmer (then 

 late of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, and who came 

 to the colony in charge of the Transit of Venus Expedition) 

 estimated the cost at £100,000. With the scientific advances 

 made in the last quarter of a century in the instruments re- 

 quired, our greatly improved means of access, our topo- 

 graphy practically complete, and our principal points 

 mapped, it is obvious that even the latter estimate of cost 

 would now be deemed excessive, and also that the cost of 

 a precise survey for New Zealand cannot be appreciably re- 

 duced by any further delay. In 1875, the date of Major 

 Palmer's report, our uncontrolled triangulations were only 

 in progress. They have since been carried all over the 

 colony, thereby widely extending the area of our unascer- 

 tained errors, and consequently intensifying the value of 

 Major Palmer's advice and warnings. I cannot do better 

 than conclude by quoting, from this high authority, his 

 summary of our triangulations* : "The work of the triangu- 

 lations has been done piecemeal, and each piece in a different 

 way. It rests on a multiplicity of bases and standards, and 

 on separate determinations of true meridian and geographical 

 position. You have disjointed details of good enough quality 

 in themselves, but as yet no means of piecing them together. 

 To put them to their full uses it will be necessary to bring 

 the whole within the grasp of one exact and comprehensive 

 system, and to refer them to a single standard of length and a 

 single starting-point." 



* App. Jrni. House of Representatives, 1875, vol. ii., H.-l, p. 2i. 



