148 



pretty often repeated in a day's work, will generally not exceed 

 half-a-dozen yards in a mile." 



4. That the great errors existing in the maps are really errors 

 of compilation in the office, and not errors of survey in the field. 



5. That it is not desirable to undertake the reconstruction 

 of the maps. 



6. That the trigonometrical survey executed many years ago 

 was a fraud, and entirely unreliable. 



7. That " in the days of field survey inspection " the work 

 of nineteen-twentieths of the surveyors " stood the severest 

 tests that could be applied to it." 



It will be convenient to consider these points seriatim. 



1. Densely-wooded and rugged country. — It is better to 

 show what has been done in other countries, than to advance 

 mere theories ; and it can be proved that these obstacles are 

 by no means insuperable. In New Zealand there is to be 

 found as densely- wooded and rugged territory as any that has 

 ever been surveyed in Tasmania, and yet it is found practicable 

 to apply an accurate system throughout. Extracts from the 

 Annual Reports (1880) of some of the chief surveyors will 

 furnish evidence in support of this statement. 



The Chief Surveyor for Auckland district says : — " We 

 have in hand at this time 23,000 acres, all of which is situated 

 in the most broken, mountainous, and difficult part of this 

 island." The work of some of the surveyors is " situated in 

 the densely-wooded and precipitous mountains of the East 

 Cape. ... I wish to state my opinion, based on a 3| 

 years' trial, that the system of survey . . . has been found 

 to work as well in our forest- clad, broken country of the 

 north, as in the open plains of the south." 



In the Wellington district the sectional surveys, amounting 

 to over 93,000 acres, are stated to be " all under forest." 



The Chief Surveyor for Nelson speaks of the country, in 

 which a large part of the surveys during the year were situate, 

 as " rugged, mountainous, heavily- timbered, with dense under- 

 growth," and adds, " the bulk of applications to be surveyed 

 are in isolated sections, or in small groups ... in many 



cases only accessible by rough bush packtracks 



Mining surveys in several localities are 3,000ft. and 4,000ft. 

 above sea-level, and generallyinbushonruggedmountain sides." 



Eeferring to a portion of the triangulation in Otago, the 

 chief surveyor for that district says, "This work is spread over 

 30 miles of wild Alpine country, full of bush, and intersected 

 by dangerous snow-fed rivers." 



Of the surveys in Southland, the report states that " 50 

 sections, embracing 4,500 acres, were in bush. . . . The 

 gold-mining applications were in densely-timbered broken 

 country." 



