THE SURVEY QUESTION IN COCHIN CHINA. 279 



collection of documents seems to have been very badly kept, 

 and I do not suppose that it is of any great use now. 



Schemes drawn up by the Survey Department. — The topo- 

 graphical department have, on their part, had under con- 

 sideration the expenditure necessary for the execution of a 

 cadastral survey of the Colony, and there exist in their archives 

 two estimates, originating, one from M. Bataille, Chef de 

 Section, and the other from the lamented M. Boilloux. 



By M. Bataille, Chef de Section. — -From information 

 furnished by officers of Government and by surveyors, M. 

 BATAILLE, in 1879, estimated, not very accurately, I fancy, 

 the cultivated area of the Colony, the only portion to be 

 surveyed, at 650,000 hectares.* With a staff of 24 Europeans 

 and 37 natives, costing 377,948 francs and surveying annually 

 40,800 hectares, M. Bataille reckoned that the allotment 

 survey of these 650,000 hectares would take 16 years and 

 would cost 6,048,000 francs ; this would be 9 francs 26 ernes. 

 a hectare. 



In these calculations, M. BATAILLE has omitted to include 

 the cost of valuation, and of determining and marking boun- 

 daries ; nor has he foreseen that a third of the staff will 

 always be either ill or on leave, for he takes it for granted 

 that the whole staff will be always at work at the same time ; 

 finally, he has not given a thought to the cost of keeping up 

 the survey when once completed. 



By M. Boilloux, Chef de Service. — M. BOILLOUX has 

 taken these various matters into account. He supposes, 

 further, that before this survey could be completed three-fifths 

 of the Colony would be under cultivation. It is on the 

 revenue survey of this area of about 3,600,000 hectares that 

 he has based his calculations. 



For the execution of this work, M. BOILLOUX estimated 

 that there would be required a staff of, first, 84 Europeans 

 supplying on an average 40 surveyors employed on the 

 revenue survey, secondly, 105 natives, as demarcators and 

 draftsmen. He calculated the annual cost to be 1,456,549 



:;< 1 hectare = 2,^-ji acres. 



