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fy himself of the fidelity of the execution of the work according to contract, and the actual and necessary expenses incurred by him while so engaged are allowed, but no extra salary. Where it is incompatible with his other duties for a surveyorgeneral to make such inspection, he is authorised to depute a confidential agent to make such examination, his expenses to be allowed and $5 a-day during the examination in the field; but such examination is not to outlast thirty days, or be longer than actually necessary. Official seals are used by surveyors-general; and copies of or extracts from the plats, fieldnotes, records, or other papers on file, when authenticated by the seal and signature of the proper surveyorgeneral, are evidence in all cases in which the original would be evidence. Certified copies of Louisianian plats and records, without the seal, are admitted as evidence in all the courts of the United States and territories.

By and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the President appoints a register of the land office and a receiver of public moneys for each land district established by law, each of whom resides at the place where his land office is directed by law to be kept. Before entering on office, each has to give bond in the penal sum of $10,000, with approved security for the faithful discharge of his trust, and each gets an annual salary of $500, besides certain fees and commissions which may amount to a considerable annual sum; but

the amount of compensations of registers and receivers, including salary, fees, and commissions, is in no case to exceed in the aggregate $3000 each per annum-any excess received at a land office having to be paid into the Treasury as other public moneys. Their appointment is for four years, but they are removable at pleasure. The receivers make to the Secretary of the Treasury monthly returns of the moneys received in their several offices, and pay over such money pursuant to his instructions. They also make to the Commissioner of the General Land Office like monthly returns, and transmit to him quarterly accounts current of the debits and credits of their several offices with the United States. The register or receiver is authorised, and it is their duty, to administer any oaths required by law or the instructions of the General Land Office in connection with the entry or purchase of any tract of the public lands; but he shall not charge or receive, directly or indirectly, any compensation for administering such oaths. If any person applies to any register to enter any land whatever, and the register knowingly and falsely informs such person that the same has already been entered, and refuses to permit him to enter the same, such register is liable therefor, to such person applying, for $5 for each acre of land which the person so applying offered to enter, to be recovered by action of debt in any court of record having jurisdiction of the amount.

PUBLIC LANDS.

All lands belonging to the United States to which the Indian title has been or may hereafter be extinguished, are subject to the right of pre-emption, under the conditions, restrictions, and stipulations pro

vided by law, except (1) lands included in any reservation by any treaty, law, or proclamation of the President for any purpose; (2) lands included within the limits of any incorporated town, or selected as the

site of a city or town; (3) lands actually settled and occupied for purposes of trade and business, and not for agriculture; (4) lands on which are situated any known salines or mines. Every person being the head of a family, or widow, or single person over the age of twenty-one years, and a citizen of the United States, or having filed a declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalisation laws, who has made a settlement in person on the public lands subject to preemption, and who inhabits and improves the same, and who has erected a dwelling thereon, is authorised to enter with the register of the land office for the district in which such land lies, by legal subdivisions, any number of acres not exceeding 160, or a quarter section of land, to include the residence of each claimant, upon paying to the United States the minimum price of such land. The following classes of persons, unless otherwise specially provided for by laws, have no right of pre-emption: (1) No person who is the proprietor of 320 acres of land in any state or territory; (2) No person who quits or abandons his residence on his own land to reside on the public lands in the same state or territory. No person is entitled to more than one pre-emptive right; nor where a party has filed his declaration of intention to claim the benefits of such provisions for one tract of land shall he file at any future time a second declaration for another tract. Before any person is allowed to enter lands, he has to make oath before the receiver or register of the land-district in which the land is situated that he has never had the benefit of any right of pre-emption; that he is not the owner of 320 acres of land in any state or territory; that he has not settled upon and improved such land to sell the same on speculation,

but in good faith to appropriate it to his own exclusive use; and that he has not, directly or indirectly, made any agreement or contract in any way or manner with any person whatsoever by which the title which he might acquire should inure in whole or in part to the benefit of any person except himself. Should he swear falsely, he forfeits what money he may have paid for such land, and all right and title to the same; and any grants and conveyances he may have made, except in the hands of bona fide purchasers for a valuable consideration, are null and void, except as provided by law. He is also guilty of perjury, and punishable accordingly. The would-be preemptor has to comply with certain provisions of the law, varying according to circumstances.

Every person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who has filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalisation laws, is entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands upon which such person may have filed a pre-emption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to preemption at $1.25 per acre, or 80 acres or less of such unappropriated lands at $2.50 per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same have been surveyed. And every person owning and residing on such land may enter other land lying contiguous to his land which does not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate 160 acres. The person applying for such benefit, upon application to the register of the land-office in which he is about to make such entry, makes affidavit

before the register or receiver that he is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, or has performed service in the Army or Navy of the United States, and that such application is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person; and upon filing such affidavit with the register or receiver, on payment of $5 when the entry is of not more than 80 acres, and on payment of $10 when the entry is for more than 80 acres, he is thereupon permitted to enter the amount of land specified. No certificate, however, is given, or patent issued therefor, until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry; and if at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry, or, if he be dead, his widow, or, in case of her death, his heirs or devisee; or, in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs devisee, in case of her death, prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of filing the affidavit, and make affidavit that no part of such land has been alienated, except as provided by law; and that he, she, or they will bear true allegiance to the Government of the United States ;then in such case he, she, or they, if at that time citizens of the United States, are entitled to a patent as in other cases provided by law. case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an infant child or children under twenty-one years of age, the right and fee inure to the benefit of such child or children; and the executor, administrator, or guardian may, at any time within two years after the death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the

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laws of the state in which such children for the time being have their domicile, sell the land for the benefit of such infants, but for no other purpose; and the purchaser acquires the absolute title by the purchase, and is entitled to a patent from the United States on the payment of the office fees and sum of money above specified. No lands so acquired become in any event liable to the satisfaction of any debt contracted prior to the issuing of the patent. If at any time after the filing of the affidavit, and before the expiration of the five years, it is proved, after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the register of the land office, that the person having filed such affidavit has actually changed his residence or abandoned the land for more than six months at any time, then and in that event the land so entered reverts

to the Government. No person is permitted to acquire thus title to more than one quarter section; and these homestead provisions are not construed to impair or interfere in any manner with existing pre-emption rights. All mineral lands are excepted from the homestead law.

By the laws of June 14, 1878, any person who has made a settlement on the public lands under the pre-emption laws, and has subsequent to such settlement changed his filing, in pursuance of law, to that for a homestead entry upon the same tract of land, is entitled, subject to all the provisions of law relating to homesteads, to have the time required to perfect his title under the homestead law computed from the date of his original settlement under the pre-emption laws. And by the laws of May 14, 1880, any settler who has settled, or may settle, on any of the United States public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, with the intention of claim

ing the same under the homestead laws, is allowed the same time to file his homestead application, and perfect his original entry in the United States land office, as is allowed to settlers under the pre-emption laws to put their claims on record, and his right dates back to the date of settlement, as if he settled under the pre-emption laws.

Every person having a homestead on the public domain who, at the end of the third year of his residence, has had under cultivation for two years 1 acre of timber, the trees thereon not being more than 12 feet apart each way, and in a good thriving condition, for each and every 16 acres of such homestead, upon due proof of the fact by two credible witnesses, receives his patent for such homestead.

Any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who has filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalisation laws of the United States, who plants, protects, and keeps in a healthy growing condition for eight years 10 acres of timber on any quarter section of any of the public lands of the United States, or 5 acres on any legal subdivision of 80 acres, or 2 acres on any legal subdivision of 40 acres or less, is entitled to a patent for the whole of said quarter section, or of such legal subdivision of 80 or 40 acres, or fractional subdivision of less than 40 acres, as the case may be, at the expiration of said eight years, on making proof of such fact by not less than two credible witnesses, and a full compliance of the further conditions as prescribed by law; but not more than one quarter of any section is thus granted, and no person can make more than one entry under the provisions of the law.

The party applying for these benefits, under "An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act to encourage the growth of timber on the western prairies "" (laws of June 14, 1878), makes affidavit, before the register or the receiver or the clerk of some court of record or officer authorised to administer oaths in the district where the land is situated, in a prescribed form in which, inter alia, he swears that the section of land specified in his application is composed exclusively of prairie lands or other lands devoid of timber; that this filing and entry is made for the cultivation of timber, and for his own exclusive use and benefit; that he has made the said application in good faith, and not for the purpose of speculation, or directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person; that he intends to hold and cultivate the land, and to fully comply with the provisions of this said Act, &c. Upon filing this affidavit with said register and said receiver, and on payment of $10, if the tract applied for exceeds 80 acres, and $5, if it is 80 acres or less, he or she is thereupon permitted to enter the quantity of land specified. The party making an entry of a quarter section is required to break or plough 5 acres covered thereby the first year, 5 acres the second year, and to cultivate to crop or otherwise the 5 acres broken or ploughed the first year; the third year he or she cultivates to crop or otherwise the 5 acres broken the second year, and to plant in timber, seeds, or cuttings, the 5 acres first broken or ploughed, and to cultivate and put in crop or otherwise the remaining 5 acres; and the fourth year to plant in timber, seed, or cuttings the remaining 5 acres. All entries of less quantity than quarter section shall be ploughed, planted, cultivated, and planted to trees, tree-seeds, or cuttings in the

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same manner and in the same pro- | portion as provided for a quarter section. When the trees, seeds, or cuttings are destroyed by grasshoppers, or by extreme and unusual drought, for any year or term of years, the time for planting them is extended one year for every such year that they are so destroyed; but the person making the entry, before being entitled to such extension of time, has to file with the register and the receiver of the proper land office an affidavit, corroborated by two witnesses, setting forth the destruction of such trees, and that in consequence thereof he or she is compelled to ask an extension of time. No final certificate is given, or patent issued, for the land so entered until the expiration of eight years from the date of such entry. If, at the expiration of such time, or at any time within five years thereafter, the person making such entry, or, if he or she be dead, his or her heirs or legal representatives, prove by two credible witnesses that he or she or they have planted, and for not less than eight years have cultivated and protected, such quantity and character of trees as aforesaid; that not less than 2700 trees were planted on each acre, and that at the time of making such proof there are then growing at least 675 living and thriving trees to each acre,—they receive a patent for such tract of land. If at any time after the filing of said affidavit, and prior to the issuing of the patent for said land, the claimant fails to comply with any of the requirements of the Act, then and in that event such land is subject to entry under the homestead laws, or by some other person under the provisions of said Act, provided that the party making claim to said land, either as a homestead or under said Act, gives at the time of filing his application such notice to the original claimant as is prescribed

by the rules established by the Commissioner of the General Land Office; and the rights of the parties are determined as in other contested cases. No land acquired under the provisions of this Act becomes in any event liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the final certificate therefor. The Commissioner of the General Land Office is by the Act required to prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent with the Act, as are necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect. Registers and receivers of the several land offices are each entitled to receive $2 at the time of entry, and the like sum when the claim is finally established and the final certificate issued.

The President of the United States, in his annual message to Congress in 1886, stated, in relation to the laws as to the public lands, that "In later years these laws, through vicious administrative methods and under changed conditions of communication and transportation, have been so evaded and violated that their beneficent purpose is threatened with entire defeat. The methods of such evasions and violations are set forth in detail in the reports of the Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of the General Land Office. The rapid appropriation of our public lands without bonâ fide settlements or cultivation, and not only without intention of residence, but for the purpose of their aggregation in large holdings, in many cases in the hands of foreigners, invites the serious and immediate attention of Congress. I recommend the repeal of the Preemption and Timber - culture Acts, and that the homestead laws be so amended as to better secure compliance with their requirements of residence, improvement, and cultivation for the period of five years from

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