New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-04
4 PEpPG1CU TO NEW- YORK.

II Is useful thing for Nations and States
to learn now and then little humility, and
the great and proud State of New-YOrk may
profit perhaps by being reminded how far, in
one particular at least, it is behind almost
every other civilized people in the world. 1t
is on record as the opinion of the Director of
the Dudley Observatory at Albany that there
is a better map III existence of the surface of
the moon than of the surface of New York
State. An organized attempt has been in pro-
gress for two or three years to better this con-
dition of things; State survey has been begun,
and has made considerable progress, butts work
las been interrupted by Governor RObinson's
veto of the appTopriation-or rather would
have been interrupted if the Director, Mr..
Gardner, had not determined to continue the
triangulation at his own expense, trusting to
the Legislature to reimburse him. And now
while the survey of the wealthiest State in
America is proceeding by charity, as it were,
comes a letter from Honolulu stating that the
Government of the Sandwich Islands is hav-
ing an accurate trigOnOmetrical survey made
of its territory, which is used as a basis for
the surveys of public and private lands now
in progress, and would be glad to exchange
results with this State.
The contrast is more curious than appears
from the face of il. Our State has sinned
against light in this matter. 1t has been fifty
wears in making up its mind to have a survey,
and even when the necessity of the work was
at last realized, it could not proceed, it seems,
without break. 1t is fifty-twO years since
Governor De Witt Clinton, in his annual mes
sage to the Legislature, urged that =" an aU-
a. thentic and official map of this State is a
desideratum which ought to be supplied"
1t is nearly thirty years since Governor Wash
ington Hunt made the subject the theme of a
special message, and Governor Seymour fol-
lowed his example. Fifty years ago the Sand
wich Islands might almost have been called
sill the Cannibal Islands. Captain Cooks visit
had been made less than half a century be-
fore. and the inhabitants of tie Hawaiian Isles
were still naked sayages, emerging from an
idOlatry that called for the sacrifice of human
victims. What contrast III the progress of
the two peoples in one feature of civilization
There are many other contrasts quite as hu-
initiating New-YOrk is far behind every Eu-
ropean country in The matter of a survey, and
some European countries are much poorer
thaA this great and wealthy State. New-YOrk
is a, hundred years behind Japan, which is
now revising the triangulatiOn made a CEN
turi ago; forty years behind Massachusetts
behind New-Jersey and Pennsylvania, behind
even New-Mexico and Wyoming. 1t is not a
flight of rhetoric to say that our people have
worse maps than any other State in the world
of equal wealth. The best map in existence
makes a blunder of three miles in the situa-
ton of the City of Buffalo, an equal blunder
with Elmira and Plattsburg, puts Syracuse "a
mile and half from the place where it prop
erly belongs, and makes errors of three miles
in distances of twenty on Lake Champlain
In view of facts like these, ii is to be hoped
that the necessary appropriations for the work
of the State Survey will never be allowed to
fail again. Ii is estimated that three times
the amount of the usual Appropriation is being
expended every year by private citizens for
State and County maps which are OF no value
so far as accuracy is concerned. and it
would surely be wise economy to eXpend
the smaller sum in making IA survey, which,
when once completed, would stand for all
time. II seems strange that 1t should be
necessary to urge the ACCESSIBILITY OF such a
work as this, when it is seen how defective
all our data are, and how far we are be-
hind other civilized conn uDities in this
respect But a prominent State OIL