Arizona citizen., 1880-02-28
THE CITIZEN.
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY s, ssa.
Report of Pv6ke land Commissioner

The forthcoming report of the Pub lie Lands Commission will recommend that swamp and pastursge lands here after be surveyed and patented by townships; that better provisions bt made for making bUundries of survey cd tracts; that the system of letting public surveys and boundaries be tween States and Territories be here after made under the direction of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. It will also, probably, recommend that the offlee of Receiver at each local Land Office be abolished. There are about S5 of these officers. It will a.so recon. mend the chasing of public lands into hye general clasSes-arable, irrigable psstuTage, timber and mineral. Ii will also recommend the repeal of the preemptiOn law, on the ground that It's chief use now is to increase large individual holdings. The commis- sion will probably supplement It by another, making arable public lands dispossble under the Homestead laws. The commission will probably rec. ommend no limit be placed upon amounts of irrigsble land which any one person may buy; that the land be sold at 9 oe0ts per acre, one fifth to be paid down and the balance at the end of three years, and that no patent to such lands be issued until it is shown that a specified sum per acrr, say two dollars, has been expended on its reclamation. Lands clasSed AS pas. turage viii comprise untimbered and new mineral lands, not arable or cap. sble of irrigation.
 The commission will probably rec. ommend that the quantity one ma, buy be not limited, and that the price be graduated as follows: All lands sold prior to January, 1886, he at the rate of $l 25 an acre, and all lands sold from the latter date to January. 1890. to be at the rate of Sl an acre. After the last named date all lands remain ing be sold at 75 cents an acre. with a reduction of 1215 cents per acre every three years until the minimum price 1215 cents is reached. P sturage lands shall be open to homestead set lement, no one entry to comprise more than 2,569 acres It will probably recom- mend that colonies of twenty or more families may cutter homesteads either on arable, irrigable or pasturage land, and lay out village in the center oI the tract.
 Radical changes will be recom- mended in the mineral land laws. among them the following: That the xn-hT discover shall be able to hold his claim by possessory title shall be fixed and limited by law; that all local or ganizations and regulations respecting mining titles shall be abolished and the sole jurisdiction of all questions relating thereto be reserved by the United States; that the "l"de loca- tion," which permits the discoverer to follow lode any distance, in any di- rection, whether within the boundaries of his surface location or not, he re- pealed; that hereafter every miningI claim shall comprise a cartain nun berI of feet breadth and length on the sur face, and that subterranean property rights shall not extend beyond the sur face boundaries thus fixed. IL is quite probable that the Commission may re frain for the present from making any recommendation as to the area which each location may comprise. IL alsoI recommends that system of official survey and mineral inspection bel adopted to prevent blackmail and rob bery, and to obviate the necessity of legal contests before claims are pat ented,