274 THE SURVEY QUESTION IN COCHIN CHINA. 



From the words of the resolution of M. C — — , {Journal 

 Officiel of the 16th March, 1885), I gather that the local Coun- 

 cil of Bentre entertained the idea of undertaking, at their 

 own expense, an allotment survey of the arrondissement ; it 

 was proposed to ask for authority to take credit in the budget 

 for a special vote, and for power to fix a scale of charges for 

 the remuneration of the surveyors employed in the operations. 

 Where and how these surveyors were to be engaged, the 

 Council does not say. 



The resolution of the representatives of Bentre, another 

 which emanated from M. C — - — , and the offers made by 

 Messrs. A and G have, in point of fact, the same ob- 

 ject, and what I shall have to say about one of these proposi- 

 tions, will apply equally to the other two. 



The isolated survey of one or even of two arrondissements 

 being quite objectless, the Colony, if she concurs in these 

 projects, impliedly undertakes, by so doing, to extend later 

 on, to the rest of her territory, the allotment survey under- 

 taken at Soctrang and at Bentre, or in either one of these two 

 arrondissements. 



In reality, therefore, the question which has been brought 

 before the Colonial Council is one of very great magnitude; 

 it is a project so vast that, in comparison with it, the topo- 

 graphical survey on the scale of -2o^o~o on which the whole 

 survey staff has been engaged for the last fourteen years, 

 may be regarded as child's play. 



As a considerable outlay, a large staff, and a period of some 

 length must thus be necessary for the accomplishment of 

 this immense work, it ought not to be undertaken without 

 weighing carefully, on the one side, the cost and the chances 

 of success ; on the other, the immediate or future advantages 

 which it may hold out to the Treasury and to individuals. 



I shall be obliged, therefore, to go somewhat fully into the 

 different matters which I have to lay before you, but as we 

 have to do with a question involving no small demand on 

 the financial resources of the Colony, its importance must be 

 my excuse for discursiveness. 



