Arizona citizen., 1871-07-01
Relating to Land Titles.


 GEN L LAND OFFICE, May 5, 1871.
 The following is an act approved July 14, 1870, to extend the provisions of the preemption laws to the Terri tory of Colorado, and for other pur- poses:
 Be 1t enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Stat S of America in Congress assembled, That the privileges of the act of May 30, 1862, entitled "An act to reduce the expenses of the survey and sale of the public lands in the United States" be, and the same are hereby extended to Colorado; and the proviso of the first section of the act approved June ?, 1862, entitled "An act to es- tablish a land office in the Territory of Colorado, and for other purposes" is hereby repealed.
 Sec. ?. And be it further enacted. That nothing in the act of Congress approved March 27, 1854, entitled "An act. for the relief of settlers on lands reserved for railroad purposes, y shall be construed to relieve such settlers frem the obligation to file the proper notices of their claims, as in other cases; and all claimants of preelnption rights shall hereafter, when no shorter period of time Is now prescribed by law, make the proper proof and payment for the lands claimed. within eighteen months af- ter the date prescribed for filing their declaratory notices shall have expired provided, that where said date shall have elapsed before the passage of this act, said preemptors shall have one year after the passage hereof in which to make such proof and pay ment.
 This act has been amended as fol- lows:
 Resolved by the Senate and Houseof Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That settlers on the public lands of the United States who have been required to make proof and payment for their lands under the act to extend the provisions of the preemption laws to the Territory of Colorado, and for other purposes, approved July II, 1870, and by instructions from the General Land Office, under July 30, 1870, shall have twelve months ad- ditional time given them under w1ich to make such proof and payment. Ap- proved March 3, 1871.
 These statutes leave the provisions of the law as heretofore respecting "ofsred lands" viz: filing within thirty days, and payment within twelve months after settlement
 The settler on surveyed unoffered land" must file his or her declara- tory statement within three months from the date of his or her settlement on such land, and, within thirty months from the expiration of said three months, make the proper proof, and pay for such land.
 Where settlers had already, filed before the passage of the act, they are required to make proof and payment within two years from such passage; therefore, all filings made prior to that date will expire, by limitation of law, upon unoffered lands, on the 14th of July, 1872.
 The settler on "unsurveyed land" must file his or her declaratory state ment within three months from the date of the receipt, at the district land office, of the approved plat of the township embracing the tract upon which he or she has settled, and within thirty months frcm the expiration of said three months, make the proper proof, and pay for such tract.
 The proviso of the act of June 2, 1862, requiring filing within six months from survey i'll the field, and providing for filing with the Surveyor General, is repealed.
 The restriction as to construction of the act of March P, 1854 is called to your especial attention. Relating to railroad lands, and at present of no in Arizona
 In cases governed by those provi- sions you will please conform your action thereto.
 WILLIS DRUMMOND,