Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/344

 332 PBDEBAL BEPORTEB. �being in regard to the plaintiff's excuse for not doing work in 1880, after the daim was forfeited under the mining lawa of the United States. It is agreed that no work was in fact donc on the claim by the plaintiff after October, 1878. The claim was originally located January 3, 1876. January 22, 1880, congress amended the mining law by adding the follovv- ing words to section 2324, Eey. St. : �'^Providnd, that the period within which the work required to be done annually on all unpatented minerai claims shall commence on the flrst day of January succeeding the date of location of such claim; and this section shall apply to all claims locatud since the tenth day of May, A. D. 1872." . . •■ �It was faintly argued that this proviso gave the plaintiff the whole of the year 1880 in which to do work, although none had been done in 1879. The objectof this proviso was to make awnQiiiform poriod for the annual work on all" claims located since May 10, 1872, and fixed the first of January next succeeding the date of location as the time of its com- meneemient. A claim^located. as this was, January 3, 1876, would not require any labor to be done on it under this pro- visobefore Dec'ember 31, 1877. Before the proviso, work had to be done by January 2, 1877. But in this casino question ia 4iiad« las, to the work.being. done. upio January 3, 1880. The IftBttwdrk done in Octobei', 1878, held the claiin until Jan- uary 3, 1879. As the law then stood, work was required before, January 3, 1880, and, not havirig been' done, the claim was forfeited uniess work were resumed as the law provided. The law of January 22, 1880, did not, in my judgment, act retro ^pectively, and its first application to the plaintiff's claim would have been January 1, 1881. Claims located prior to May 10, 1872, had already been provided for byextending the time for the annual expenditure thereon to January 1, 1875. 18 St. 61. By applying the law of January 22, 1880, to all claims located since May 10, 1872, all cases were pro- vided for, and a rule for all annual expenditures established uniform with the calendar year. This is the view of the general land-office, and is undoubtedly correct. Sickles' Mining Laws and Decisions, 1881, pp. 392, 393. Thus there ��� �