Arizona weekly citizen., 1884-07-26


 very serious drawback, iO-wlt: It com pels the settler at the outset to come forward and make an actual cash pay ment for his lanJ when he may be very poor, and desirous of availing himself of the easy terms allowed by the law. Independent of the above cited difficult ties, the deposit system seems to meet the requirements of settlers seeking government land, and the survey thereof. Immigration IS constantly pouring into this Territory, the agricultural, grazing and mining resources of which are such as to invite settlement, and 1 am of the opinion that this office will suffer no further falling off of the surveys under the deposit system for the present fiscal year.
 RAILROAD LAND GRANT.
 4 great impetus to settlement in the northern portion of the Territory would be achieved by the surveying of the large land grant made by Congress to the Atlantic and Pacific railroads. The extension of the lines of survey over this vast area Of country, would throw open fir intelligent settlement the al , terDate sections belonging tO the govern ment. The importance of the people | having all gOvernmt nt land bounded, and defined, can't hardly be overestim- Rted, as II will be the means of Induc- | ing settlement in the fertile portions of | Arizona, thereby compelling tue ! Indians III their raids to con- ' fine themselves to the barren wastes, where life cannot be sustained and waTllke operati' ns must fail tor ! these necessities of life. l urge upon | the government the necessity of com ! pleting public surveys, and throwing all available land open to settlement at the earliest possible moment, in the interest of the people already settled n this Ter ritoTy.
 PRIVATE LAND GRANTS. 1 This class of work in this office Is necessarily of slow progress. In the in- vestIgation Of these old grants, letters are frequently months m being an swered. Photographs of printing, wrIt- | ing. autographs, seals, etc, are not in | frequently sent both to Spain and the interior of Mexico, for comparison with authentic records, and every step in the ! investigation of a private land grant Is lGborious and requires time. Experts when sent to examine ancient documents ] months and are embarrassed by the To- cal custodlans in many instances to the detriment of the service.
 Ihere are at present pending m this office highly important grants, which l shall not be able to report upon for some ! time to come, as the Investigations have In most instances been but lately com menced, and the interests involved are s,s t., -. than the most searching investigation, and intelligent and exhaustive work It Is to be regretted that at the time Oi the purchase of this Territory, the treaty in connection therewIth dld not specify a limitation of time within which the United States would confirm private land grants covering portions of the newly acquired Territory and beyond which they would not be entertained. Arizona Is to-day covered in portion by grants which have not even at this late day been filed. These grants exist in reputation only, and 1t seems to be the intention of the claimants to allow tbeir alleged grants to lie dormant until towns are built upon them and their arabic and pasture lands are purchased from the government and settled upon, when
 
 quit claims of title, or demand settle meats at exorbitant rates, usually com mensurate with the cost of improve ments, etc, and not infrequently these claimants are persons who III the strict eye Of the old practice. would have come within the pale of punishment for main tenance and champerty. This class of claimants secure control of the title pa- pers ID an effort to perhaps have the grant confirmed, in the meantime Quit claiming and collecting money ID settle ments. The government cannot exer- else too stringent measures in regard tO the lnvestICatian of private land claims of this character m this Territory, and especially these Lot filed at this time. or thos which are filed and in which the claimants thereto are making no partic- nlar effort to furnish evidence, as this class Of grants are a great deiriment to the advancement of thIs Territory, and d constant nightmare to the settlers thereof
 INDIAN AND MILITARY RESERVATIONS.
 The boundary lines of al Indian res- eryHtIOus should be surveyed by deDu- ties of this office. 1 have ths honor to submit that 1t IS not the proper thing for the military to make suryeys of these Ines, ot which thIs office has no record whatever and expect deputies of thls of. ice m the survey of townships to close thereon, and connect theIewlth. l sub- mt that such work Is against the spirit. l and intent of the acts creating offices of surveyors general, and that deputies of this utlice cannot connect with military surveys, and make oath to the accuracy l Of their work. This office should make l these surveys-eyen though they have been previously made for military pur. | poses-hefofe any townships are con nected herewith. l desire to particu | larly recommend that this office be al- | lowed to make all the surveys, on which | any portion of the work of subdiyidiup | this Territory will connect.
 The western and eastern boundaries I of the White Mountain and San Carlos Indian reservation should be surve, od | at once. Important mnlng operation, are now being conducted near its west ern boundary. and Quch land has al- ready been entered for ranchipg pur- poses on the eastern boundary, and sur- yeys to connect herewith are applied for approximate thereto In order that future complications may be avoided as far as possible, urge that money be furnished this office to enable me to en- ter into contract for the survey of these eastern and western boundaries.
 In my opinion there Is no portion Of Arizona that requires the attention of Congress more than the military reser- vations of this Territory. With scarce ly an exception their areas are larger than absolutely demanded for military purposes, and as they have been partic- nlarly selected on account of their de- for living purposes they natu- rally cover portion of Arizona that IS most Deeded for settlers. So that all land covered by these military reserva-