The record-union., 1893-03-22
LOCATION OF LIEU LANDS.

LOCATION OF LIEU LANDS.
The attention of the Governor, the At
torney-General and the Register of the
State Land Office, otherwise known as
the Surveys General of California, as
well as the attention of the General Land
Officers at Washington, and the public
generally, is hereby called to the fact that
under the Act allowing California to ex-
ercise lieu right anywhere in the public
domain, and within the limits of the
State of California, the selection of lands
in lieu of such as have been lost by reser-
walton and mineral interdictment is going
on at very rapid pace. What is most re-
markable in the matter is that one single
firm has succeeded in locating over 200,-
600 acres, for which they have received
over 81 an acre, when the State receives
only 81 %. Another firm has offered to
capitalists who will come into pool, or
syndicate, lieu locations covering 100, 900
acres, with the assurance that since it is
locatable in any part of the State and
may cover some of the most valuable
timber lands in the timbered region of
the State, reasonable prospect exists
that it may be sold at an average of from
81 80 to s. an acre.
There is nothing new in the procedure
which enables a single individual to To-
cate persons on 100000 acres of land and
make profitable business by it. A Gus
tom, however venerable, has not and can
not make it right; in the very nature of
things there must be collusion. There
must be violations Of the law; there must
be fraud in the location of so large a
quantity of land by single firm. The
process that is now going on will simply
put all the lieu, to which the State became
entitled by Act of Congress granting
lieu right for the sixteenth and thirty
sixth sections lost by reason of mineral
interdictment and Government reserva-
tions, in the hands of a few holders. A
proper administration Of this great right
would have been to allow men who de-
sired to occupy the land-poor men, in
fact-to locate this lieu. We would have
had something to attract settlers to this
State. But the administration of the af-
fairs of the State has gone wrong from
the first, and State lands, whether swamp.
school or university, have fallen into the
hands of spectators. The present status
of the holdings of lands once owned by
the State, proves this conclusively, and it
will not be worth while for anyone to at
tempt any refutation of it.
The attention of the Governor. the
Attorney-General and Register of the
State Land Office is called to these mat
ters, with the assurance that the facts are
being collected very carefully, with the
hope that their presentation will work q
reform in administration methods. The
attention of the land officers of the Gov
ernment at Washington is directed to
the returns which are being certified by
the United States Surveyor r-General at
San Francisco. Recently a Deputy
United States Surveyor-General, evil
IDENTIFY in the service of the ring, re-
turned surveys of the northerly portions
of township, saying that he had sur
veyed down to the north line of Section
l6, and that in his opinion the surveyed
land was mineral; and also, that in his
Judgment the unsurveyed land was min
eral. This opinion, or dogmatism, of a
Deputy United States Surveyor General
was deemed sufficient to claim the exer-
else of lieu right for l $50 acres, owing to
the mineral character of the township.
In this way the exercise of lieu right is
created, and i'll every instance one or the
other of the firms that are exercising all
the lieu right the State possesses to their
private profit are practically selling the
States land at about four times what
the State will get for ii from the actual
purchaser. If anyone makes pretense
that this is fair, they will simply add
hypocrisy to dishonesty.
Beyond these matters. however, there
is still stronger consideration, and that
is the title which will be obtained in the
manner indicated. The lieu right, which
is to be exercised in consequence of the
mineral character OF Sections l6 and SO il
in any township is contestible. The pub
lie should know that each piece selected
in lieu of lands lost to the State has the
land lost as its basis. Ii that basis is
false, the right to select never occurred.
and the public are warned against the
character of title which the manipulators
are attempting to give. In great many
instances the title will be worthless. In
fact, no one can purchase lands of these
manipulators without danger of losing
all they pay by reason of the failure of
the title they obtain. Fraud vitiates
everything. Any step in the chain of
title being fraudulent will make the title
null and void. Up to the close of last
! week the Surveyor-Generalh had certified
to one firm over 100000 acres and to
another about 100, 900 acres. 1t is nothing
less than great pity that the landless
poor cannot obtain some.of the lands