REPORT FROM THE LAND COMMISSION OF 1886-87.
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concern themselves about the Government interests in their Districts; to report to the departments interested; to look after the Police, Forest guards, Collectors of Revenue, Lands, Fishing Boats Fisheries, Industries, agricultural and otherwise, the Junk Trade, Roads, Lighthouses, Reservoirs, Water supply, Reclamations, Public Buildings, Repairs, Contractors and workmen employed by Government, &c., &c., &c. These duties the Commissioners think would keep them actively employed and would be of great use to them in after life.
Of course a permanent staff would be required, but only experience can show what that staff should consist of. At present the staff employed is singularly deficient for the work that has to be done. There are Inspectors of Police at Kowloon; at Sowkewan; at Stanley, and at Aberdeen, each with a small body of Police under them; there are three forest rangers for the whole Island, and there are light-house keepers, &c., at each of the light-houses in the Island.
The Treasurer has lately employed an extra shroff and collector in his office; the Surveyor General sends an Inspector occasionally; the Registrar General has hitherto only received applications that have been made to him, and used formerly occasionally to send out a collector; each department works separately, and there has been absolutely no local supervision beyond what the heads of depart- ments, or their deputies, could occasionally give.
The Commissioners think that the time has fully come when some such supervision should be established.
If, however, the Government take a different view, and should not feel justified in incurring the increased expense, the Commissioners think that the services of the Inspectors of Police in the outlying districts might be utilized to a far greater extent than they have hitherto been.
A larger staff will be required at the Land Office, but the Commissioners can make no recom- mendations on that subject, which recommendations must wait the result of experience.
Many suggestions have been made to the Commissioners that there is no sufficient survey of the Colony, especially of the City of Victoria, which, with a public map, it has been represented is very much required for registration and other purposes, and several persons have suggested that the survey should be undertaken and a public map prepared as soon as practicable. Some suggest that a staff of the Ordnance Survey Department in England should be sent out for the purpose, and that the expense to the Colony would, ultimately, be very small, as the value of the map would cover the expenses, and possibly leave a profit.
The Commissioners are informed, however, that there is a very useful map of 160 feet to the inch, prepared some time ago in the Surveyor General's Office and corrected to the latest date, and the Surveyor General has promised that a copy of this map shall be furnished to the Land Office. The Commissioners would recommend that this map should also show houses and street numbers and be kept at the Land Office under constant correction. The Commissioners attach the greatest im- portance to the compilation of proper maps for registration purposes, and recommend the subject to a Crown Land Board, or other authority to be hereafter constituted in lieu thereof.
The Commissioners are of opinion that it is desirable in the interests of the Colony that all the land granted upon lease (except for agricultural or pastoral purposes, or for garden lots), should be granted upon the same tenure. Before very long it will be necessary that something should be done in reference to the Leases for 75 years. The same difficulties will soon arise in dealing with them as arose with the 75 years Leases granted in the early days of the Colony, when the lot holders looked forward to the fact that the termination of their Leases was within a measurable distance; to remedy which the term was extended for a further period of 924 years. The lots become unmarketable, tenants will do nothing towards repairs, or in the improvements or sustenance of their dwellings; if they were habitable towards the expiration of the term that is as much as they would be. No one