In February 1970 Mr. Ash returned from leave to take up his post as Geologist and began by finishing off the mapping of the Efate area, involving a short visit to Mataso, where he had previously been unable to land. Subsequently he mapped the southeastern third of Erromango, so completing the mapping that had been started by Dr. H. Colrey in 1966- 67. After completion of Erromango Mr. Ash began a study of the North Banks Islands by commencing the mapping of Vanua Lava, long known for its small deposits of sulphur. Dr. Mallick continued his work on Santo by beginning to link up the areas of the western mountain belt covered by Drs. Jones and Robinson, and to put additional traverses into Dr. Jones area to produce a geological map. An appreciable portion of Dr. Mallick's time, in addition to normal administrative duties, was spent in editing of report manuscripts and maps. Drafts of the reports on Northern Malekula, Erromango, the geophysical survey undertaken in 1967, parts of the reports on Maewo, Pentecost and the southern Banks Islands were received and returned to their authors after editing. Three reports were published in 1970 : Annual Report of the Geological Survey for 1968, Annual Report of the Geological Survey for 1969, "Gravity and Magnetic Studies of the New Hebrides Arc" by A. Malahoff. In addition one short report "Pyrite and copper mineralisation of the Mt. Batmar area of Pentecost" by D. I. J. Mallick was prepared and given limited distribution. Former Senior Geologist A. J. Warden had a paper "Genesis of the Forari manganese deposit, New Hebrides" published in the Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. The following geological map sheets were completed to the fair-drawing and colouring stage during the year: 1 : 50,000 Sheet 3 Southern Banks Islands Sheet 8 Queiros Peninsula, Santo. Sheet 15 NW Malekula. Sheet 16 NE Malekula. Sheet 17 SW Malekula. Sheet 18 SE Malekula. 1 :170,000 Malekula. In addition 1 :50,000 scale draft maps were received of the northern two-thirds of Erromango and of two sheets covering the Central I slands; they were r eturned to their authors after editing. The four 1: 50,000 sheets of Malekula were forwarded to the Directorate of Overseas Surveys, England for redraughting and colour printing at 1 :100,000 scale. T he other complete sheets constitute only parts of proposed final 1 :100,000 sheets. The Geological Survey continued to keep records of the volcanic activity of the group, although the reports received tend to be sporadic in the absence of regular observers. Several of the volcanoes were in activity during the year which was noted for the mild recrudescence of activity of the submarine centre Karua in the Central Islands. The increase in prospecting activities in the South Pacific over the past few years was reflected in the large number of mining company representatives \.vho visited the Geological Survey. Active prospecting in the New Hebrides was, however, undertaken by only one company.