The Saint Paul globe., 1897-01-14
ARCHBISHOP ON THE STAND.
Tells of the Purchase of Railway
Indemnity Lands.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
ORTONVILLE, Mimi, Jan. 13-In
the Archbishop Ireland land contest
cases the forenoon was occupied in TAX
ing stlpulatlons of adverse claimants.
The archbishop, who arrived last even
Ing, took the stand this afternoon, and
testified relative to his purchase Of
these lands from the old ST. Paul &
Manitoba Railway company, as follows:
In July, 1880, 1 made a contract
with the st. Paul, M. & M. R'y Co.,
by which 1 received the sole and ex-
elusive right to place settlers upon, or
to sell, $4,000 acres Of railway in
demnity lands in Big Stone and Ira
verse counties. In 1883 I entered into
second contract to purchase 10000
acres of these lands at 81 per acre.
At this time 1 made it very clear to the
land commissioner that [ wished to
buy these lands myself, so as to have
sole and absolute control over them,
and to put any price upon them |
wished. This second contract being an
actual purchase, / did not wish to load
myself down with more land than
could pay for, SO contracted for only
$4,000 of the 900 acres in the first
contract, especially as some of the
lands were of a poorer quality, and not
readily saleable. The new contract
was not a renewal of the second, else
| would have included the whole &c.
900 acres, as l would have asked moth
ing, and might have been the gamer
by including all of the original tracts
From all information that I had. and
l sought out due information, no one
was occupying these lands under the
public land laws. l fully believed the
railway company entitled to these
lands, and that it would ultimately
acquire title to the same, and 1 felt OBJ
ligated by this contract to make set
tlement to the company for the entire
so, 600 acres whenever the company
should acquire full title thereto. The
company was then required to notify
me, and [ was to settle with it. and
the title should be conveyed to me or to
such other persons as | should desig,
nate. This latter clause was to avoid
in some cases the trouble and expense
Of double record. In pursuance of
contract the land commissioner noti-
fed me by letter that the railway had
acquired title to 25,91S acres of the g.,
coo acres, and l was asked to select
from these %, ,918 acres SO many acres
as I desired, whereNpOn L made selec-
tions embracing 1900 acres in my
own name, and made payment in full
or partially for the same.
It is provided in the contract of 1882
that 10 per cent Of all the money shall
be paid to me as it was received by
the company as a rebate. This pro-
vision came about in this way: The
land commissioner, in formulating the
second contract, had put down the
price at 81 per acre. to which objected,
claiming the right to purchase at the
price agreed upon in the first contract.
which was figure 10 per cent less than
that named in the commissioner min
uteS Of the new contract. To this he
&cceded, and SO noted it on his min
utes as 10 per cent off. Some days later,
when about to sign the contract I no
ticed it had been written out as 10
per Gent off, but, considering the form
quite immaterial, and, moreover, be-
lieving it would really be very con-
venient for me, as 1 had already is
sued contracts to settlers at 81 per acre,
] allowed the clause to stand. as it
simply permitted a rebate in my favor
over what the settlers were to pay.
The larger portion of these lands are
thorized agents. My entire claim to
these lands is based upon these two
contracts, though [ have not yet paid
the company for them, except SO far as
the large expenditure I have made in
establishing these colonies, and which
the railway company always considered
as a consideration from me in return
for their contracts. The reason which
[ have made no direct payment for the
land is that the company has not re-
ceived full title from the government
and was not prepared to give me full
title, and for and furthermore nv con-
tract did not demand that / should
make direct payment until they could
give me absolute title. I made this
contract for the purpose of settling up-
on these lands large colony of set.
tiers, but4with no conditions as to the
amount Of land each should have. The
general purpose eFWas to bring settlers
tc these two counties, but there was no
limitation that l was to sell only to
settlers. l was free to do with the land
as I cncse. Ny purpose was- to settle
on tie +andS both r,nor and rich if /