K— GEOGRAPHY. 103 



One of the first problems that confront any community is the question 

 of property, of land division and land tenure. From very early times it 

 has been the custom in communities with any degree of civilisation to 

 establish proof of ownership of land by a document of some sort, and 

 this has usually been accompanied by, or has sometimes consisted solely 

 of, a diagram or plan of the property. Each plan or diagram was produced 

 solely for the purpose of showing the particular property in question, and 

 usually without any reference to adjoining properties. In modern times 

 the necessity has become apparent both for ensuring the accuracy of 

 such plans, and for co-ordinating them ; that is, for referring all to a 

 common basis of fixed points. 



Nearly every country has maps or plans of this sort, as they usually 

 form the basis of the system of Land Registry in the country ; and in 

 many countries they are the basis of revenue from land taxation. In 

 most cases the plans are isolated, in the sense that each represents a 

 particular property, or village, or commune, and does not show detail 

 outside. In some few cases these plans have been combined into a 

 regular series of cadastral maps. 



These cadastral maps or plans are obviously a most important feature 

 in the mapping of a country ; and it appears to me that it should be the 

 function of the National Survey either to provide such maps or to control 

 them. By control I mean that where, as is the case in some countries, 

 it is the custom for cadastral plans to be prepared by private enterprise, 

 it should be the duty of the National Survey to check such plans, to 

 ensure their accuracy, and to see that they are properly related to the 

 triangulation of the country ; which is, and should be, the basis of all 

 survey work. This system is, as many of you will no doubt know, that 

 which is in actual operation in South Africa at the present time, due to 

 the provisions of the recent Survey Act. 



I have mentioned the isolated cadastral plan. This form of plan is 

 common in the early stages of the development of a country, and is 

 perhaps inevitable. But it should be only a temporary stage in the 

 evolution of the survey of the country. As soon as it is practicable, it 

 appears to me that these individual plans ought to be co-ordinated into 

 a regular series of plans or maps ; and that the National Survey ought 

 to undertake this work. In other words, the National Survey should be 

 responsible for the production of such cadastral maps, in a regular series 

 of sheets, as the country requires. 



The importance of these property or cadastral maps and plans will 

 probably be readily admitted, since questions of property and land 

 tenure appeal directly to most of us. The value of a good topographical 

 map may not perhaps be so easily appreciated by those who have managed 

 to get on quite well without such a thing. Yet the importance of having 

 a good topographical map of a country — especially a country which is in ; 

 an early stage of development — can hardly be over-estimated. It is of 

 the utmost value to the settler, to engineers of every kind — road, railway 

 and irrigation ; to the geologist ; and to the administrator. I will not 

 dwell further on this subject at the moment ; but I will return to it when 

 I deal more particularly with the survey of South Africa. 



We arrive then at the point that a properly organised Survey 



