Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/429



actual attendance on the duties of his office, subsequent to the first day of January next: Provided, that the whole amount of compensation thus allowed, shall not for any commissioner exceed two thousand dollars: And provided also, that the President of the United States may, if he shall think proper, reduce, after the first day of January next, the number of commissioners on either or both boards, to one or two persons, and in case of such reduction the commissioner or commissioners constituting the board, shall have the same powers which are vested by this act, or by the, in the board established by the act, to which this act is a supplement. The clerk of each of the boards shall be entitled to receive at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars a year; the translators at the rate of six hundred dollars a year, and the agents employed by the Secretary of the Treasury at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars a year, from the first day of January next, to the time when each board shall respectively be dissolved. Provided, that no more than one year’s compensation be thus allowed to each of the said clerks, translators, and agents: And provided also, that the Secretary of the Treasury may discontinue either one or both of said agents, whenever he shall think it proper.

. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of persons, claiming lands in the territories of Orleans and Louisiana, be, and they are hereby authorized, if they shall think it necessary, for the purpose of obtaining oral evidence, either in support of, or in opposition to claims, which evidence could not be given at the usual place of their sittings, without oppression to the parties or witnesses, to remove their sittings, or to send for that purpose, one or more members of the board, to such other place or places, within their respective districts, as they may think necessary: And each of the commissioners going for that purpose, to such other place or places, shall, in addition to his compensation, receive at the rate of six dollars for every twenty miles, going to and returning from such place or places: Provided, that no commissioner shall receive in the whole, on that account, more than for the distance, from the usual place of the sittings of the board to the extreme settlements within his respective district.

. And be it further enacted, That each of the boards aforesaid, shall prepare and cause to be prepared, the reports and transcripts, which by law they are directed to make to the Secretary of the Treasury, in conformity with such forms as he may prescribe; and they shall also, in their several proceedings and decisions, conform to such instructions, as the said secretary may, with the approbation of the President of the United States, transmit to them in relation thereto.

. And be it further enacted, That the surveyor of the public lands, south of Tennessee, be, and he is hereby directed to appoint a principal deputy for each of the two land districts of the territory of Orleans, whose duty it shall be to reside and keep an office in the said districts respectively, to execute, or cause to be executed by the other deputies, such surveys as have been or may be authorized by law, or as the commissioners aforesaid may direct; to file and record all such surveys, to form as far as practicable, connected drafts of the lands granted in the district, so as to exhibit the lands remaining vacant, and generally to perform in such districts respectively, in conformity with the regulations and instructions of the said surveyor of the public lands south of the state of Tennessee, the duties imposed by law on said surveyor. And each of the said principal deputies shall receive an annual compensation of five hundred dollars, and in addition thereto, the following fees, that is to say: for examining and recording the surveys executed by any of the deputies, at the rate of twenty-five cents for every mile of the boundary line of such survey; and for a certified copy of any plot of a survey in the office, twenty-five cents.