Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1881.djvu/18

XVI present law there seems good reason to believe that extensive surveys are made far in advance of any legitimate demand; it is impossible to test the accuracy of the field work, and it is probable that when, in the future, a survey shall be needed, the work will have to be done again.

PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS IN NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, AND COLORADO.

I call special attention to that portion of the letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office relating to private land claims in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. The uncertainty existing as to the validity of these claims and their extent makes the title to them of merely speculative value and.retards the sales and settlements, greatly to the injury of the sections in which these claims are situate. The present system for the settlement of these claims appears to be wholly inadequate, and some more efficient system should be speedily provided.

LAND-GRANT RAILROADS.

Fifty miles of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad west of Albuquerque,New Mexico, were accepted by President Hayes on the 17th December last; and fifty miles by President Garfield on the 18th April last. One hundred additional miles of this road are now ready for examination, and commissioners have been appointed for that purpose.

Fifty miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Dakota Territory, west of the Missouri River, were accepted by President Hayes on the 20th December last, one hundred additional miles, partly in Dakota and partly in Montana, have recently been examined, but have not yet been accepted. Two hundred and twenty five miles in Eastern Washington and Idaho are now under examination by commissioners.

One hundred and thirty miles of the New Orleans Pacific Railroad have recently been examined, but have not yet been accepted. One hundred and twenty-three additional miles are now ready for examination.

REPAYMENTS.

The price of reserved sections within the limits of railroad land grants is by law double the minimum price for similar lands outside such limits. It has happened in many instances that local land officers have supposed parcels of land to be within land grant limits when in fact they were not, and have sold them to purchasers at double minimum price, thus placing in the Treasury of the United States in each case a sum of money to which the government was not entitled, and which in all good conscience belonged to the party by whom it had been paid.

Accordingly Congress, by act of June 16, 1880, provided that "in all cases where parties have paid double minimum price for land which has afterwards been found not to be within the limits of a railroad land grant, the excess of one dollar and twenty five cents per acre shall in like manner be repaid to the purchaser thereof, or to his heirs or assigns." (Supplement to Revised Statutes, page 565.)