Certain it is that the Surveyor General's attention has been chiefly directed to the triangulation of the Colony. Although this is necessary and important it is not the matter in which the Colonial Government and the Public are most interested.
Both Government (the former from a financial point of view) and the landowners (the latter from a similar point of view) are interested in ensuring that the various lands sold or leased by Government should be accurately measured and plotted. There is reason to believe that nearly all the older plans of lands within the city need revision and I have recently learned that the plans of lands in the outlying villages and localities are equally untrustworthy.
From C.I.O.795 of 1890 I gather that in order to identify Inland Lot No. 40 x 44 it would be necessary to resurvey nearly the whole of the village of Aberdeen.
It is abundantly evident that if Revenue Survey is not included in the new Surveys of the Colony the Trigonometrical Survey pure and simple would not meet the requirements of the Government.
In my opinion it is most important that the revenue survey should be put in hand as early as possible and to prevent confusion it should be carried on under the direction of the Officer appointed to make the Trigonometrical Survey. It will, I think, be admitted by all conversant with the circumstances of the case that it is hardly possible to make a survey of all present holdings without reference to and independently of the Surveyor General for whose use the Survey will be made and who is in charge of the Land Surveys.