Evening star., 1901-11-30
Ownership Of Millions Of Acres Of
Tropical Lands in Doubt.
EMPIRE OF STRANGE TERRITORY
Titles Must Be Determined and
Laws Enacted.
SOME DIFFICULT PROBLEMS

written TOT Inc Evening star.
No more perplexing question has arisen in
the administration of its new possessions
by the United States than the disposition
of the vast areas of so-called public lands.
The extent Of the new public domain can
only be guessed at, for the distinction be-
tween private and public ownership is lost
in the indefinite character of deeds, grants
| and surveys.
The insular bureau of the War Depart
ment, under whose jurisdiction comes much
! of this territory, confesses to an appar-
! eEtly hopeless lack of information, and the
| Interior Department, having Porto Rico In
| its care, declares that thorough preltm-
| mary investigation only makes confusion
| more apparent.
| From the day the United States assumed
control of Spanish territory in 1898 Amer
| lean investors, promoters, homeseekers and
| SPECTATORS have besieged the government
| at Washington for information, privileges
and concessions in the matter of land ON
ber and minerals in the new possessions.
| These demands have been so numerous ana
persistent that circulars have been issued
| with which to reply to queries. The lnfor-
| nation contained therein amounts simply
| to the statement that the hands of the ex-
| ecutive department are tied pendlng coh-
| gressional action or that such chaos relghs
| until new surveys are made and old tlties
| determined that it will be many months
before the government will know Just where
it's land jurisdiction begins or ends.
In the Philippines, Porto Rico. Hawaii,
Tutula and Guam there are in round num-
bers 100, 600, 600 acres of land, of which ap-
proximately thirteen-fourteenths are in the
| Philippines. 1t is impossible to even make
| a guess at what proportion of this land is
| government property as distinct from pri-
| vate ownership. The Spanish and local
titles are terribly indefinite and involved,
and the records of surveys and boundary
| nd VI
for sale or grant by natural boundaries or
by given measurements from natural or
artificial landmarks. Stakes were often
driven in the ground and land granted IN
a circle of a certain diameter about such
stakes This naturally resulted in conflict
ing grants and in odds and ends of territory
of irregular shapes still remaining in pubic
ownership.
In Our Eastern POssessIens.
Porto Rico is the only country in which
| q formal investigation of the status of the
public lands has been made. This is due to
the fact that Porto Rico is under civil ad-
ministration and the Secretary of the In
terror, as soon as he was given authority.
| appointed a special commissioner to look
| the matter up. This Commissioner has made
| two reports, one of them recent, and In the
| latter report he raises another insular ques-
| tion for the Supreme Court of the United
States, which is of great interest and I'M
| portance.
The commissioner asks whether the pub
lie lands of Porto Rico belong to the
United States government or to Porto Rico
| as a state. He calls attention to a clause
| of the Paris treaty which provides that the
cession of Porto Rico, Guam and the Phll'
| ippineS shall not impair the property rights
of provinces and municipalities as well as
| of private or corporate ownership. Under
Spanish rule Porto Rico was province Of
. Spain and as such owned all the land upor
, the island not held in private ownership
. Public land in the territories of the United
States belongs to the United States govern
, ment and a nice question arises as tc
whether Porto Rico when in transition re-
tanned sufficiently tangible political ex
istence to keep the title to public lands un
der the Paris treaty or whether these land:
, become the property of the national gov
. ! ernment by reason Of the expiration of any
island government until Congress created
| one.
A Difficult Problem.
) AS elsewhere in the new possessions tn,
! question of the public lands is vexatiou
D and annoying problem. To arrive at an.
definite status a thorough survey must b.
made of the entire island, all titles mus
be recorded and the boundaries of Ian,
9 | decided and granted must be resurveye
, ! and re-established. Porto Rico is com
= | paratively a small territory, there bein
approximately but 2,304, 900 acres in the en-
tire island. While 1t is populous and in
tensely cultivated, it is also true that il
the more mountainous districts there ar
| many acres of wild lands the title to Whic
" undoubtedly rests in the public domain.
G A partial list Of public lands has bee
made and includes a great variety, rangin
e from town lots Of great value to mountai
e peaks apparently worthless for purpose
e Of cultivation. The courts will be calle
q upon to decide whether the old distinctio
; between crown property and state propert
: will hold. If it does hold the national gov
q ernment' will own such town lots and mill
d tary reservations as were owned by Srair
6 but the great body of public land will b
y owned by the people of Porto Rico as
g community and the insular government Wi
d have the power to make the land laws n l
o vide for the surveys and fix the titles
If will evidently be long time before title
can be conveyed to public lands in Port
e Rico not only because of the tremendou
3, task involved in the surveying and in de-
st termining titles, but also in the fact that tn
N Supreme Court will have to determine th
er status of public ownership before the title
l. can be given.
~ The Situation I'm Hawaii.
% Even with its more advanced form c
IL government, the situation in Hawaii is a
Is most equally involved. Congress Is now bs
or ing asked to extend the lands laws of I'll
a. a. United States to the Hawaiian islands wit
such notifications as will sui. local cond
t. tions. The most valuable public lands 1
e, Hawaii are now known as crown lands an
"a in the past these have been leased to tn
th sugar planters for long terms Of years.
Mt that these leases have serioasy retarde
ct the settlement and development Of Hawai-
a Many of these leases are now about to e,
ne pire and tremendous pressure Is beIn
s. brought to bear to effect .neir rcnewa
Us This move is being bitterly fought by
ID majority of the people, and It is doubta,
rs whether public sentiment will allow the bl
ct sugar interest to continue in undispute
s. possession of valuable land which divide
TO Into forty acre homesteads would result
e@s @ large increase in desirable populatio
rd and greater and much needed agricultur;
m development.
Id The affairs Of Tutuila and Guam have NJ
p reached stage where the public land que
st ton is OF great moment, though in time son
ed | settlement of the matter will have to
made and some method devised for the di
position of the same and the conveying
titles. Whether the local government w
be allowed to administer these trusts
whether system of land laws will
u adopted by Congress is yet to be determine
ID Conditions are so entirely different in the
n places from those which the land office h
| nYnar tod lndo tn he