Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/318



twenty-one of the ninth township of the twenty-first range, be granted to Christian Van Gundy, on their payment of the purchase money, agreeably to the provisions made by law, for lands sold at private sale.

. And be it further enacted, That whenever any of the public lands shall have been surveyed in the manner directed by law, they shall be divided by the Secretary of the Treasury into convenient surveying districts, and a deputy director shall, with the approbation of the said secretary, be appointed by the surveyor-general for each district, who shall take an oath or affirmation truly and faithfully to perform the duties of his office; and whose duty it shall be to run and mark such lines as may be necessary for subdividing the lands surveyed as aforesaid, into sections, half sections or quarter sections, as the case may be; to ascertain the true contents of such subdivisions; and to record in a book to be kept for that purpose, the surveys thus made. The surveyor-general shall furnish each deputy surveyor with a copy of the plat of the townships and fractional parts of townships contained in his district, describing the subdivisions thereof, and the marks of the corners. Each deputy surveyor shall be entitled to receive from the purchaser of any tract of land, of which a line or lines shall have been run and marked by him, at the rate of three dollars for every mile thus surveyed and marked, before he shall deliver to him a copy of the plat of such tract, stating its contents. The fees payable by virtue of former laws for surveying expenses shall, after the first day of July next, be no longer demandable from, and paid by the purchasers. And no final certificate shall thereafter be given by the register of any land-office to the purchaser of any tract of land, all the lines of which shall not have been run, and the contents ascertained by the surveyor-general or his assistants, unless such purchaser shall lodge with the said register a plat of such tract, certified by the district surveyor.

. And be it further enacted, That from and after the first day of April next, each of the registers and receivers of public monies of the several land-offices established by law, either north of the river Ohio, or south of the state of Tennessee, shall, in addition to the commission heretofore allowed, receive one half per cent. on all monies paid for public lands sold in their respective offices, and an annual salary of five hundred dollars, the register and receiver of the land-office at Marietta excepted, the annual salary of whom shall be two hundred dollars. And from and after the same day the fees payable by virtue of former laws, to the registers of the several land-offices, for the entry of lands and for certificates of monies paid, shall no longer be demandable from nor paid by the purchasers of public lands. And it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause, at least once every year, the books of the officers of the land-offices to be examined, and the balance of public monies in the hands of the several receivers of public monies of the said offices, to be ascertained.

. And be it further enacted, That from and after the first day of April next, the fees heretofore payable for patents for lands, shall no longer be paid by the purchasers. And it shall be the duty of every register of a land-office on application of the party, to transmit, by mail, to the register of the treasury, the final certificate granted by such register to the purchaser of any tract of land sold at his office: and it shall be the duty of the register of the treasury, on receiving any such certificate, to obtain and transmit, by mail to the register of the proper land-office, the patent to which such purchaser is entitled; but, in every such instance, the party shall previously pay to the proper deputy postmaster, the postage accruing on the transmission of such certificate and patent.

. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States shall have full power to appoint and commission the several registers and receivers of public monies of the land-offices established by this