96 "Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Art. VIIL.— Colonial Standard Survey. By J. T. Tuousox, F.R.G.S. 
(Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, Sept 30, 1876). 
This is not intended to be a treatise on the methods employed in Standard 
Survey. Fullinformation may be had on these by the study of technieal 
works, All that can be attempted here is to indicate such professional 
measures as experience has shown to be the best for the particular circum- 
stances of this colony. 
Mr. J. A. Connell has ably discussed the subject of actual survey, 
So in this paper I shall confine myself as much as possible to matters not 
touched on by him. 
'To the Home country and other European nations we look for examples 
of the highest skill applied to the standard work—that is in the professional 
operations which govern detail measurements,—and ask ourselves, can the 
same processes be applied here, or do the wants of colonial settlement pre- 
vent this? This question, I hope, may be made clear before we come to the 
end of this paper. 
The first step made in the great triangulation of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and which has since developed itself into a general and actual 
survey of territory and property, was the measurement of a base on Houns- 
low Heath in 1784, intended solely for the purpose of connecting by 
triangulation the observatories of Paris and Greenwich. Being thus insti- 
tuted for a purely scientific object, it was continued so, and the next step 
was to measure an arc of the meridian, for the purpose of ascertaining the 
true form of our globe. After this a further extension of its operations was 
given to it by the commencement and combination of topographical and 
actual surveys in combination with the superior processes. But it must be 
here stated that these latter measures did not mark out and delineate new 
properties about to be taken possession of, but old properties already pos- 
sessed and marked or fenced in. Thus the Home survey has not been one 
of settlement as ours in New Zealand is. 
Another great point in British survey must here be mentioned, viz., that 
of India, embracing as it does over 1,800,000 square miles of territory, 
while the British Islands cover 122,000 square miles only. This was 
commenced by great trigonometrical operations over the Madras presidency 
in 1799, the primary object of which was, with other surveys of the 
same nature in different parts of the world, to ascertain the true figure 
of the earth, the subsidiary object being to provide geographical data for 
military topographical surveyors ; and it is curious to remark that the in- 
itiatory support that great triangulation obtained both from the British and 
the Indian Governments was from the same motive—a motive apart from 
the purely scientific objects of the projectors, viz., that these operations 
would give opportunity for military reconnaissances, and so (especially in 
India) be useful in the time of war. 
* « Trans, N.Z. Inst.” Vol, VII., Appendix, 
