'T'noxsox.— Colonial Standard Survey. 107 
will work out the problem of settlement survey correctly to the end. "Thus 
a surveyor may professionally concede to the wants of the settler sofar. I 
may also here, in addition, state this circumstance: that in standard survey 
true bearing is of more importance than distance, errors in the former not 
being eliminated till the boundaries of circuits are reached, while errors in. 
distance are eliminated at boundaries of survey districts, which are limited 
to twelve miles square. 
We next come to the relative cost. That of major triangulation, being 
affected by the nature of the country, has been variously stated, but we 
quote the following ;—In Otago, 540 square miles cost £759, or £1 7s. 9d. 
per square mile, or about 4d. per acre. * In Auckland and Wellington, 
1,019,600 acres cost £2,400, or 446 of a penny per acre. t Other work of a 
similar nature has been estimated at a rate more or less, but we may accept 
these as the average in accessible country. 
The cost of meridional cireuit survey is obtained from the operations 
executed by Mr. McKerrow, now chief surveyor of Otago, which covered 
12,000,000 acres of territory, at a cost of £9,500; that is 8s. 61d. per 
. square mile, or 4, of a penny per acre. Thus the relative cost of 
major triangulation and meridional circuit is *58d. to -066d. or as 8 to 1 
nearly. | Now as cost means money and money means time, it is evident 
that the despatch or rapidity of meridional circuit standard survey is 
eight times greater than those of major triangulation. Hence its advantage 
in meeting the responsibilities of Government in their relations to the 
wants of outlying and dispersed settlers, now spreading themselves over all 
parts of the colony. With the immense amount of onus now on the 
Government to have recourse to it is not a political only but an absolute 
necessity. § 
With these facts before us, then, we arrive at this opinion, that having 
abandoned primary triangulation, and secondary or major triangulation 
having a slight advantage (but in a professional point of view only) over 
meridional circuit, it should be had recourse to in carrying out the standard 
survey when circumstances will permit this. Hence in the revisal of all untrust- 
worthy sectional work, of which there are 11,095,287 acres in the colony, || 
major triangulation on carefully measured bases should be had recourse to, 
* Major Triangulation, Otago Block, 1857. 
+ Report of Inspector of Surveys, 28th May, 1875. 
| The cost for the whole colony will be as £141,525 to £18,062 also respectively. 
§ This is the practical question in all parts of the colony. Can an immigrant settler 
wait eight years to get possession when he can be placed in one year by the Otago 
standard system of survey? 
|| Palmer.—l. c. p. 28. Section surveys, 6,405,500; Native do, 4,689,787. Total, 
11,095,287. 
