Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-06
respondent-Matte of Interest to the
Pacific Coast.

Washington Notes, from Our Own Cor.
respondent-Matters of Interest to the
Pacific Coast.
WASHINGTON, May 5th-At to-day's meet
ing of the House Committee on Mines, Rep
resentative Belford offered short and simple
substitute for the Public Land Commission
bill. This substitute proposes to confine all
new legislation on the subject to an amend
ment to Section 1922 of the Revised Statutes,
by adding to said section the following words !:
g And in all cases where the main dip of the
lode, vein or ledge does not exceed 80 degrees
from the horizon, the right to follow the
mineral shall not extend beyond the side
line drawn downward vertically"
Senator Jones and Representative Daggett
were present when this substitute was offered.
They stated that they could see no objections
to its adoption, they being satisfied that a
distinction should be made between Hat lodes
and fssure veins.
Mr.. Belford suggested that the Congress
sional Representatives of the mining States
and Territories should meet at Senator Jones'
house tomorrow evening and definitely agree
upon measure regulating the location of fat
lodes that do not appear upon The surface,
and meeting will be held accordingly
AS soon as the bill is agreed upon it will be
introduced in the House and Senate and
pressed for passage without delay.
The Public Lands Commission bill is op-
posed by all the members from the Far West
and number from the East, and to-day s
proceedings in committee indicate that it will
not become law.
Your correspondent has ascertained to-day
that the majority of the Board of Engineers
have selected Port Oxford, Oregon, as the
point where the proposed harbor of refuge
shall be constructed. The minority recon-
mend Trinidad, California, as the best loca-
tion but as the law of last year confined the
power of absolute selection upon majority
of the Board, and appropriated $3.50, for
commencing the work, the present majority
determination is final, unless Congress shall
explicitly decide otherwise. The appropria-
ton is, however, to be expended under direc-
ton of the Secretary of War, hence the ne
cessity of submitting the report to him for
his orders to commence operations.
The Postmaster General, at the instance of
Senator Farley, has authorized the Postmas-
ter at Wilmington to advertise for proposals
for transferring the mails from the postoffice
to the anchorage, five or six miles distant.
No special provision has heretofore been
made for performing this service.
The Postoffice Department has also ordered
a weekly mail service during six months of
the summer season between Sutter Creek,
Amador county, and Wooltords, IN Alpine
county. The contract IS given to Reed of
Placeryille at 81, 600, the lowest bid.
Secretary Evarts to-day, at the request of
Horace Davis, wrote a letter to Yueng Wing,
the Chinese Minister, calling his attention to
the heavy penalties prescribed by the census
law for refusals to furnish information to the
Censu Enumerators. This will indirectly,
but doubtless efficaciously, suggest to the
Chinese Minister the desirability of his issu-
ing notice to the Mongolian residents of
California that they must promptly answer
the interregatories of the mysterious census
taker.
Senator Booth to-day introduced a dupli-
cate of Representative Davis bill to grant an
American register to the bark Annie john
son, rebuilt at Tahiti by the San Francisco
firm of Crawford & Co.
John F. Swift left Washington to-day for
New York, en- route to Ann Arbor, Mich,
where he will visit Minister Angel and then
proceed to California