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on each side of the line in California. Exception is made of lands sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of, and lands to which a pre-emption or homestead claim may have attached at the time the line of the road is definitely fixed. Indemnity is provided for lands thus lost to the grant out of alternate odd-numbered sections not more than ten miles from the limits of the sections granted. Provision is also made for indemnity for lands lost by reason of the near approach of the line of the road to the boundary of Mexico, and also for mineral lands excluded from the grant out of odd-numbered sections nearest the line of the road.

The company was required to commence the construction of its road simultaneously at San Diego, Cal., and from a point at or near Marshall, Tex., and to complete the entire road within ten years after the passage of the act. The act, approved May 2, 1872 (17 Stat., p. 59), required that the road be so commenced and constructed as to secure the completion of the entire road between the points above named within ten years after the passage of said act. This extended the time for completion to May 2, 1882, and the grant is not strictly within the class to which the resolution now before me applies; but in view of the failure of the company to construct any part of its road eastward from San Diego, I have decided to submit the facts in the matter.

The length of the entire line is estimated at 1,483 miles. Proof of the construction of 181 miles of this road in Texas has been furnished, but no evidence of construction beyond that has reached this office.

From the western boundary of Arizona to the western boundary of Texas the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, having no land grant, has built and is operating a road almost entirely within the limits of the grant to the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, and for the greater portion of the distance practically on the line adopted by the Texas Pacific Company.

NEW ORLEANS, BATON ROUGE AND VICKSBURG RAILROAD COMPANY, NOW NEW ORLEANS PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY.

By section 22 of the act approved March 3, 1871 (16 Stat., p. 573), granting lands to the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, this company was granted the same number of alternate sections of public lands in Louisiana as were by that act granted in California to said Texas Pacific Railroad Company (to the amount of ten alternate odd-numbered sections per mile), on each side of the line of the road.

The company was required to complete its road within five years from the passage of the act. The estimated length of the line of the road is 318 miles. No evidence of the completion of any portion of this road within the time required by law has been furnished.

Other information respecting the grants to corporations above described appears in the tabulated statement herewith transmitted.

All roads not herein before mentioned are believed to have been constructed within the statutory period.

The following statement completes the information asked for by the resolution:

COSTS OF SURVEYING, SELECTING, AND CONVEYING LANDS GRANTED TO AID IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILROADS.

By the act of Congress approved July 1, 1864 (13 Stat., p. 335), as revised, paragraph 7, section 2238 Revised Statutes, fees to be paid the

registers and receivers upon selections of lands under grants for railroad purposes were fixed.

Such fees have been paid on all selections forwarded to this office since July 1, 1864, the same having been fully collected by registers and receivers upon presentation of each list of selections.

A proviso in the act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government, approved July 15, 1870 (16 Stat., p. 305), declares that before any land granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company shall be conveyed to any party entitled thereto under the grant, the cost of surveying, selecting, and conveying the same shall be paid by the company or party in interest.

The act making appropriations for the same purpose, approved July 31, 1876, contained the following proviso:

That before any land granted to any railroad company by the United States shall be conveyed to such company, or any persons entitled thereto under any of the acts incorporating or relating to said company, unless such company is exempted by law from the payment of such cost, there shall be first paid into the Treasury of the United States the cost of surveying, selecting, and conveying the same by said company or persons in interest (19 Stat., p. 121).

Being in an act making appropriations, the proviso of July 15, 1870, requiring the Northern Pacific Company to pay the costs of surveying and conveying lands granted to it escaped the attention of the branch of this office then charged with the adjustment of railroad grants, and I find no reference to it in the records until 1874. By letter of May 27, 1874, the resident attorney of said company was informed that no more patents would issue to the company until the expense of surveying and patenting 743,493.44 acres of land in Minnesota, for which patents had issued in 1873, should be paid.

The amount due from the company for the expense of surveying said land is $26,020.53; expense of conveying same, $161.85; making a total of $26,182.38.

It is understood that at the next session of Congress, after the date of said letter, the company sought relief from the payment of the cost of surveying, &c., and this may account for the fact that no further action was taken in the premises.

With the exception of one for 3,016.80 acres in Washington Territory, issued April 8, 1880 (upon which all costs were paid), no patents have issued to said company since May 27, 1874.

The provision in the act of 1876, making appropriations as stated, also escaped notice until 1878, when attention was called to it in connec tion with an application for patents to the Southern Pacific Railroad of California. The matter was presented to the department October 26, 1878, with an opinion that said company was exempt from the operation of this requirement so far as lands earned by construction prior to July 31, 1876, were concerned. In his decision of February 20, 1879 (Annual Report General Land Office for 1879, p. 115), your predecessor overruled this opinion.

Pursuant to this decision, on March 12, 1879, a demand was made upon the resident attorney of said company for the payment of the ex pense of surveying and conveying 230,500.30 acres, patented October 20, 1877. To this the attorney replied, on the 14th of the same month. that he had advised the officers of the company of the demand and would communicate their answer as soon as received. No response by the company has reached this office.

I find that said company is indebted to the government for costs of

surveying and conveying lands embraced in several smaller patents, for which no demand appears to have been made.

The amount due from said company is as follows:

Expense of surveying 320 acres in patent No. 8, dated September 30, 1876...

Expense of conveying same...

$14 40
1.90

$16 30

Expense of surveying 22,600.48 acres in patent No. 9, dated February 27, 1877.......

1,017 02

Expense of conveying same.....

4.80

1,021 82

Expense of surveying 230,500.30 acres in patent No. 10, dated
October 20, 1877....

10,718 52

Expense of conveying same..

26 30

10,744 82

Expense of surveying 40 acres in patent No. 11, dated January

31, 1878.....

1.80

Expense of conveying same.

250

4,30

Total amount due......

11,787 24

The following amounts are due from the Central Pacific Railroad Company as successor to the California and Oregon Railroad Company. I find no record of any demand made therefor:

Expense of conveying 45,282.79 acres in patent No. 4, dated April 19,

1877...

$11 75

Expense of surveying 238.26 acres in patent No. 5, dated May 21, 1877. $10 72
Expense of conveying same and 320 acres additional in same patent
(surveys paid for)...

260

13 32

Expense of surveying 10,904.62 acres in patent No. 6, dated February 28, 1878....

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The Oregon and California Railroad Company are also indebted to the government for the expense of surveying 86,622.17 acres of land embraced in patent No. 5, dated June 18, 1877, 83,940.15, and expense of conveying the same, $26-making the total indebtedness $3,966.15, for which no demand appears to have been made.

For reference, the amounts above given are here tabulated:

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It will be observed that in the case of the three companies last referred to the patents were all issued prior to the decision of your predecessor upon the act of 1876.

The failure to make and renew demands for payment was undoubtedly an oversight and due to the great pressure of business which has always

existed in the division of this office charged with the adjustment of these grants. Now that the facts are brought to my attention, demands will be made for the several amounts due, and the result promptly reported to the department.

The proviso in the act of 1876, before quoted, applies to all the "corporations" herein named, but the above are the only ones to which patents have issued that have failed to reimburse the government for the expense of surveying and patenting lands.

In conclusion, I have to state that the information asked for by the resolution covered a wide range of subjects, and that to answer the same satisfactorily has required the unremitting labor of all the available clerks in the railroad division for the past forty days. The delay has been caused almost entirely by the failure on the part of this office in the past, at the time when land grants to aid in the construction of railroads were first extensively made, to adopt and perfect a comprehensive system of procuring and keeping in a concise and convenient form all matters of information relative to each particular grant. It has been necessary, in collecting much of the information here presented, to examine correspondence relative to a particular grant, covering a period of twenty-five years; also to measure, in almost every case, the line of definite location of a road in order to determine its length "as located," because of failure on the part of railroad companies to state the length of road, and because such information was not necessary to this office in the adjustment of a grant, and had not therefore been previously ascertained. In order to determine what roads had not been completed in the time named in the granting acts and amendments thereto, it was necessary to examine every grant made to a State or corporation, such fact, like the preceding one referred to, not being a neces sary concomitant in the adjustment of a grant since the Schulenberg vs. Harriman case, herein before referred to.

For many years past the majority of the force of the raiload division of this office has been engaged in the settlement of contests between settlers and railroad companies, and the increase of that class of cases has been so rapid, the rulings of the executive and judicial departments of the government so diversified, and new legislative acts relative to land grants so numerous, that but a small portion of the division could have been assigned to the adjustment of railroad grants without detriment to the interests of settlers, which have been considered paramount to others in conducting the business. When it is understood that to properly adjust all the grants in question the status of each 40acre tract must be examined and determined; that there are not only hundreds of thousands but millions of said tracts, and that the status of many tracts involves not one but many questions of law, the magnitude of the work to be performed will be apparent.

The interests of settlers within the limits of these grants, the interests of the railroad companies and those of the people of the United States, demand that these grants should be adjusted at the earliest possible date and the lands now withdrawn not needed to satisfy grants restored to entry, and that the proper force of competent clerks should be provided for such purpose.

The resolution does not call for any copies of papers or correspondence bearing upon the subject therein involved, consequently none have been prepared. Of course there is on file and of record a vast amount of correspondence pertaining to the business of these various railroad companies, and their controversies with individual settlers. To give copies of

the same would require a long time and indefinitely postpone this report. If, however, Congress should desire and designate copies of any such correspondence, they will be furnished.

The resolution is herewith returned.
Very respectfully,

Hon. S. J. KIRKWOOD, Secretary of the Interior. -3

H. Ex. 144

N. C. MCFARLAND,

Commissioner.

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