30 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



work, and if the present system is continued, then further milUons 

 of bases will have to be measured and scrapped when the time 

 comes for all surveys to be made on one standard base — namely 

 the trigonometrical triangulation of the country.' 



It is important to note that the funds for the geodetic survey of 

 the Union, upon which about half a million pounds have been 

 expended, have been obtained mainly on the grounds that, ulti- 

 mately, it will provide a final solution to the cadastral problem 

 (Grobler 1927). Furthermore, Sir David Gill succeeded in per- 

 suading the Government of Southern Rhodesia to undertake the 

 arc of meridian through its territory solely on the ground that it 

 would enable the Government to establish a system of sound title 

 to land. In 1928 the mover of a motion in the Legislative Assembly 

 of Southern Rhodesia for continuing the trigonometrical survey in 

 that country, stressed its importance in both cadastral and topo- 

 graphical surveys (Fletcher 1928). 



At a conference of Survey Officers of the Empire in 1936, Mr. 

 Whittingdale, Director of the Trigonometrical Survey of South 

 Africa, spoke in emphatic terms of the immense saving that 

 had accrued to that country from the geodetic survey. He drew 

 particular attention to the importance of such work even where 

 the land traversed appeared to be valueless. The fact that the 

 geodetic survey of the Union preceded the discovery of many 

 important mineral deposits has saved the country enormous sums. 



The degree of precision aimed at and obtained in the successive 

 orders of triangulation in the geodetic survey of Southern Africa 

 would not be necessary for the control of a topographical survey 

 alone. A country with a valuable mining industry, which is 

 extending every year, and sometimes in the most unexpected 

 areas, cannot afford to be careless of inches in its land surveys.^ 



ORGANIZATION 

 BRITISH 



In the Union of South Africa each of the four provinces, the Cape, 



Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange Free State, has its own Survey 



Department under a Surveyor-general, which deals solely with 



property survey. All other surveys are carried out by the Union 



Trigonometrical Survey, established by the Land Survey Act, 



