50 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E 



the Madras Government advocating a mathematical and geographical survey of 

 the peninsula. 



In this letter he discussed the principles upon which such a survey should be 

 based. He dismissed astronomical fixations as not providing the requisite degree 

 of precision, observing that such determinations of position are liable to great 

 inaccuracies, 'three, four, perhaps ten minutes,' and proposed a triangulation 

 emanating from a measured base line checked by similar base lines at intervals. 

 He recognised that the figure of the earth and lengths of the polar and equatorial 

 radii were not then known with the precision necessary for fixing the spheroidal 

 co-ordinates of the trigonometrical stations of a survey covering such a large area 

 of the earth's surface, and that a geodetic survey was therefore necessary ^are 

 2)assu with the geograpliical survey. He had an impression, how derived it is not 

 now possible to say, that there was a sudden abnormal diminution of the force of 

 gravity at the latitude of 10° north, and consequently that ' a degree on the 

 meridian from that parallel to the Equator must be very short compared with a 

 den-ree to the northward of 10°.' He observed that it would be necessary to 

 ' attend to this circumstance,' which he characterised as important both from the 

 map-making and from the rigorously scientific point of view. He added : ' I shall 

 rejoice, indeed, if it should come within my province to make observations tending 

 to elucidate so sublime a subject.' 



In a similar case, occurring in recent years, the outcome has not been so 

 satisfactory. It will be within the recollection of all here how at the time of the 

 South African war the public at home learnt with shocked surprise that there 

 were no maps in existence of a colony which had been under the British flag for 

 a long period of years. To those who knew the facts this was, naturally, no 

 matter of surprise ; but it was earnestly hoped by many that this grave deficiency 

 thus revealed by the stress of war would be remedied by quiet work in the time of 

 peace and that, at the conclusion of the military operations, the foundation should 

 be laid for a federal survey department of British South Africa comparable with, 

 though on a more moderate scale than, the Survey Department of India. This 

 hopeful scheme, which it may be recorded very nearly came to fruition, ulti- 

 mately found political conditions too adverse, and had to be indefinitely postponed. 

 An army engaged in field operations in the north of Natal now, or in fact at any 

 time for an indefinite number of years in the future, would find the country nearly 

 as mapless as it was found by Sir R. BuUer in 1900. 



In this short recital of the determining causes which have in the past led to 

 the initiation of national surveys, it will have been noticed that no allusion has 

 been made to what we should now perhaps consider the main utility of a map — 

 namely, its value for all purposes connected with the ownership, development, and 

 taxation of land. When the ordnance surveys of Great Britain and Ireland were 

 originated there was little thought of this use, and it was not till long after that 

 period, when the enormous deficiencies of the existing property plans were 

 revealed by the Tithe Commutation Acts and by the railway boom, that the value 

 of a national survey for preparing a cadastral or large-scale property map of the 

 country was recognised and acted upon. Now this is often the ostensible object 

 for embarking upon a regular survey. It is fully recognised that, especially in the 

 case of a country undergoing rapid development, which is fortunately true of many 

 of our oversea possessions, the provision of an accurate land map is of prime neces- 

 sity both to the private or corporate landowner and to the State. 



Neither were any of the early surveys undertaken for the purpose of mutual 

 delimitation of international boundaries ; a necessity which has in recent years 

 been the stimulating cause for many pieces of valuable survey work, especially in 

 Africa. 



The other manifold uses of a map are familiar to all of you and we need not 

 pause to enumerate them. We may admit the fact that the adequate mapping of 

 its territories is recognised as one of the duties of a civilised State. Let me now 

 turn to the main subject of this address — the inquiry as to how far this duty is 

 performed by us, what shortcomings we can perceive, and what suggestions we can 

 offer for the future. 



