The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-13

at the rate OfS$2-5Os per acre, ana graz
ing lands at tffesrate. of $1.25 per acre,
! one-fifth of the respective sums to be
paid at the time of original entry and
four fifths thereof at the time Of max
ing final proof; but the rights of hon
Iorably discharged Union soldiers and
sailors. as defined and described in
section 2304 and 2305 of the revised
Statutes of the United States, shall not
be abridged, except as to the sum to
as to agricultural and grazing lands
shall be made by an employee of the
/ general land office, under the direction
Of the secretary of the interior"
Accompanying the report of the house
committee on the amended bill is the
following letter from the commissioner
of the general land office to the sec
! rotary o. the interior:
Sir: I have the honor to acknowl-
| edge receipt of senate bill to ratify
an agreement with the Indians of the
| Fort Hall Indian reservation in Idaho,
which was transmitted to you by the
chairman of the house committee on
Indian affairs for your views in the
| premises. The bill as submitted practi-
j cally agrees with the draft prepared
in this office, except that a provision
authorizing the sale of said lands
! under the timber and stone laws has
been Incorporated, and a proviso that
each settler on said lands shall, before
receiving title, pay $3.50 per acre for
said lands. and that lands entered
under the town site and mineral laws
shall be paid for at the rate of SIS per
acre, has been stricken out
In his report on this bill the COM
missioner of Indian affairs calls atten-
ton to his report when it was pending
in the senate, wherein he adverted to
the fact that probably $4,000 acres of
hn cd Low -, H.
Canal company'S canal; that by a
contract with said company water is
to be supplied on the lands referred
to at an original charge of SIS per acre,
and rs cents per acre per annum
thereafter; that these terms are ex-
ceedingly liberal, and competent
judges have expressed the opinion that
the lands affected are worth at least
SO an acre. He, therefore, suggested
that the bill should provide some
means for the disposal of the lands
under said canal that would insure
some return for their real value.
1T appears, however, that with this
report before it, the senate has seen
fit to pass the bill without any pro-
vision as to payment for said lands.
AS payment is to be made to the In
dams of the Fort Hall reservation, at
the rate of nearly $1.50 per acre for
the lands coded, this office deemed it
proper that the parties who secured
said lands should pay enough therefor
to at beast cover the amount provided
for in the ceSSion.
I am still of the opinion that a pro-
viSo as to payment of at least $1.25
per acre by homestead claimants for
lands not situated under the canal of
the Idaho company should be inserted
in the bill. This office has no knowl-
edge of the terms of the contract of
the Idaho Canal company with the
government, but it appears from the
statement of the commissioner of In
dian affairs that certain moneys have
been expended in having the ceded
lands which are under the canal of
said company covered by water,
thereby, greatly enhancing them in
value" L would, therefore. concur in
the suggestion of the commissioner of
Indian affairs that these lands should
be so disposed of as to insure some re-
turn for their real value"
The state department has issued a
valuable document relative to the
Philippine islands that will be of
interest to the brave boys from
Utah who will SO soon arrive
in that archipelago. This docu-
men contains a report from Presi-
dent Frank Karult, of the Philippines
mineral syndicate. He says: It is not
improbable that ere long we may nave
to reckon with these islands in the
far east as factors in the worlds gold
production. That the precious metal
is widely distributed in the archipelago
is known to all who know a little more
of it than its name, but they are few
in number. Few also are the sources
whence information can be drawn. Not
five books in the English language are
worth consulting about them. The
number of the islands which form the
Philippine archipelago will astonish
many readers. It is said to approach
1000 There are two among them
larger than IreIand-namely, Luzon
with 1000, and Mindanao with $4,000
square miles; and there are other is
lands with $500, 1850, 1000, $500, and
1900 square miles. There are reasons
for the hypothesis that the Philippine
islands are peaks, mountain ridges,
and table-landS of a submerged CONT
nent, which in q very early geological
period extended to Australia.
The seasons are divided into hot
and cool. or wet and dry, and vary
according to the aspect of the coun-
try. Regions EXPOSED to the southwest
monsoon have their wet season, whilst
on the other side of the mountains
people enjoy the dry season. The rain
fall is not excessive for the tropics, nor
is it continuous for occasional breaks
son. The climate is very healthy for
the tropics, and diseases-e. g., yellow
fever-are unknown
The bulk of the natives are of a race
akin 10 the Malays, though pure
Malays are only settled on the south
coast of Mindanao and the neighbor-
ing islands, where at times they give
little trouble to the authorities. In
the interior of LuZon and some of the
other islands the remnants of a race
of natives of undoubtedly Papuan
origin are found, still as untamed, and
given to rowing through the forests,
as the Spaniards found them over 300
years ago. They like their Australian
kinsmen, fly from civilization and sue
cumb when forced into contact with it.
Not the Aegean. not the West In
dian, not the Samoan, not any other
fair island cluster can rival in manifold
beauties of earth, sea, and sky the
Philippine archipelago Pity that for
the Philippines no word Inner of note
exists. The chiefest, the almost ex-
ceptional, spell of the Philippines is
situate, not in lake or volcano, forest
or plain, but in the races that form
the bulk of the island population. 1
said almost exceptional because
rarely is an intra-tropical people a
satisfactory one to eye or mind. But
this can not be said of the Philippine
Malays, who, in bodily formation and
mental characteristics alike, may
fairly claim a place not among the
middling ones merely, but among al
most the higher names inscribed on the
worlds national scale. A concentrated,
never absent self-respect, an habitual
self-restraint in word and deed, very
rarely broken except when extreme
provocation induces the transitory but
fatal frenzy known as 'amok,' and an
inbred courtesy, equally diffused
through all classes, high or low, I'M
failing decorum, prudence, caution, |