Miwri Jtalomij of Government Surveys. 185 



in a position to make geological deductions, I liad at the 

 same time to get up the topography, for all that was set down 

 in the maps of the interior had not been taken from regular 

 hydi'ographic data, but were mere jottings, which had been 

 laid down from the hasty and necessarily imperfect sketches 

 which travelling missionaries, public officers, and other casual 

 travellers had brought with them. The imperfect charts 

 which the Colonial Government had supplied me with, to 

 guide me in pushing to the eastward, only gave the inhabited 

 points along the coast, and even a few miles distant from 

 Auckland were so much waste paper. To remedy this I had 

 recourse, from the very commencement, to a system of triangu- 

 lation, by means of an Azimuth compass, based upon the 

 nautical survey of the coast made by Capt. Drury, which I 

 prosecuted, with the invaluable assistance of Capt. Drummond 

 Hay, from the west coast to the east. The natives, who, in 

 their profound distrust of the government land speculations, 

 always threw every possible obstacle in the way of the land- 

 surveyors and provincial engineers, so soon as they made their 

 appearance, theodolite in hand, on any land not yet pur- 

 chased, never once disturbed us. They knew I was a 

 stranger, who was only going to stay a few months in the 

 country, and accordingly made it a point of honour that I 

 should carry home with me as high an opinion as possible of 

 the country. At every remarkable point the chiefs stationed 

 guides, and accompanied me to the summits of the mountains, 

 whence I made my observations, and with great readiness 



