The Survey Department exhibit a series of maps, chromolithographs, &c. The Physical Map of New Zealand, which is 8ft. X 10ft., and is drawn on a scale of eight miles to the inch, shows all the natural features of the Colony—such as mountain ranges, glaciers, lakes, and river systems. The map is very beautifully executed, the compilation and projection on the polyconic system being by Mr. T. M. Grant; the hill shading by; Mr. J. M. Malings; and the writing by Mr. F. W. Flanagan. The Land Tenure Map, also drawn to a scale of eight miles to the inch, shows in distinctive colours the land owned by Europeans, purchased from the Natives; the lands owned by Europeans, purchased from the Crown; the confiscated lands unsold; lands held by Natives under Crown title; lands over which the Native titles have not yet been extinguished; Native lands under negotiation to purchase by Government; Crown lands still unsold, and public reserves; Crown lands leased for pasture; and lands reserved for Native purposes. This map is a copy of the projection of the Physical Map, and having regard to the purpose for which it has been constructed, it will, perhaps, be the one around which will centre the most interest, as showing to the eye in a graphic form the actual settlement and occupation of the Colony. The writing was principally done by Mr. H. McCardell, and partly by Mr. Grant. Some of the vacant spaces of this map are filled in with coloured diagrams, showing from the year 1855 to the end of 1884 the progress of the Colony in population, nationalities, and religions; number of page 51 children attending school; birth, death, and marriage rate; imports, exports, and total trade; land in cultivation; yields of cereals and root crops; sheep, horses, cattle, and other stock; number of holdings under cultivation; total deposits in the Savings Banks; revenue and expenditure; tonnage of shipping, inward and outward; miles of railway constructed; telegraph, lines; capital invested in land, buildings, and machinery, &c. Indeed, this map affords a complete history of the economic and industrial progress of the Colony for the past 30 years. The statistics were compiled in the Registrar-General's office, but the arrangement and printing of the diagrams was by the Survey Department. The rollers of these two large maps have been designed in imitation of the Maori taiaha, which is a symbol of friendship between Maori tribes in amity with one another. Another map, which for the practical purpose of enabling the people at home to understand the model settlement of a new country, is the plan of the country around Mount Egmont, indicating the manner in which Crown lands are subdivided and mapped for the information of the public prior to their being offered for sale. On this map, which is drawn on a scale of two inches to the mile, every section and road is clearly shown, the numerous streams flowing down from Mount Egmont to the fertile Waimate Plains and the Opunake country, right up to New Plymouth, with that noble cone of Mount Egmont rising to a height of 8,260 feet above the sea, shown in the background in a beautifully artistic manner.

The Auckland branch of the Department has furnished a very interesting map of the extinct volcanoes of the Isthmus of Auckland, on which the well-known cones of Rangitoto, Mount Eden, and about thirty others are well brought out. This map was drawn by C. N. Sturtevant, under the direction of Mr. Percy Smith, Assistant Surveyor-General. The Department also furnishes many specimen copies of its lithographic productions, including two maps of the Auckland District, drawn to a scale of four miles to the inch; the Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawkes Bay Provincial Districts, to a scale of eight miles to the inch; maps of Nelson and Marlborough, with parts of Canterbury and Westland north of latitude 43 degrees S., to a scale of eight miles to the inch; also a map of Otago to the page 52 same scale. In a portfolio the Department furnishes a complete representation of the New Zealand system of surveying in its geodesical, trigonometrical, and traverse surveys, together with a volume of the published annual reports, and a sketch of the New Zealand system of settlement surveys by Mr. J. McKerrow, Surveyor-General. There are maps of each island, showing the density per square mile of the European population, and a similar map for the North Island, showing the location and relative density of the Maori population by different shades of colours. There is a series of chromo-lithographs of portions of the settled districts and towns of New Zealand, which will show some of the most pleasing rural and industrial scenes and landscapes, which are similar to those in the most favoured parts of the United Kingdom. This is a very important part of the survey collection, because we are rather prone to exhibit New Zealand as another Switzerland, too often ignoring its rich valleys. The chromos were drawn on stone by Mr. E. Graham Mr. A. Barron, the chief of the Surveyor-General's Department, supervised and directed all these very interesting and scientific exhibits, necessarily involving a very large amount of plodding application.