The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-14
WANTS LAW ID SAVE THE TRUST LANDS State Land Agent MaCCain Makes Recommendation WORK FOR LEGISLATURE Much Land Is Shown to Be Yet Un- patented in Records of Secre-
 tary of State-Making
 Investigation.
WORK FOR LEGISLATURE

Montgomery. January 13.-CSpecial)- In a report to the governor State Land Agent John R. MacCan recommends that some means be employed to save the trust lands of the state which are now being lost. He says that they are being taken up by parties to whom no patents have been issued and the state is losing valuable property which should be saved He thinks the legislature should at once take the matter up. His letter follows:
 Since I have received the honor ana courtesy of the appointment to the po4~ ton of state land agent by you, in November, 1901, l have under your di- rection had charge of the state landsS Under the limited powers granted me by an act of the legislature, approved February 9. 1SS9 l bagan at once to as certain. after an examination of the tract books of the several counties, in the of fee of the secretary of state, what lands really belonged to the state. found that quite deal of trust lands, or sixteenth section lands, were shown upon the tract books Of the respective coun- ties to be unpateuted, the presumption being that said lands were still held in trust by the state for schools. I made a list of all such unpatented school lands as shown by the tract book and sent the list, showing sections, townships, ranges, and subdivisions, to the tax as- sessors of the respective counties, under authority of section 4 of the law under which l have been serving, and asked the:n to fill from the records of their of fees, on the blank furnished. the names and addresses to whom if any one,
 1,.,r f1,.1wF had been held and the value thereof.
 Prompt Return Made.
 "In most every case a reasonab bly, prompt return was made and the blanks partially filled out but in many coun- ties the records had not been kept well or had been destroyed by fire or other wise. and in most cases a full report was not obtained by that method. After the return of these lists from all the coun- ties but about three I found, after sum ming up, that something like ,00O acres of these trust lands, shown to be un- patented on the tract books, were claimed by different parties in the counties Copies of these lists were then made and sent to county superntendents of edu- cation. whose duty it is under the law to make investigations. and, if possible bring suit in the name of the state to recover these lands wherever they are il- legally held. In this way, we have endeavored to reach each individual case as nearly as possible, but the county su- perntendents of education receives no ex- tra compensation for this work and in many cases we have not been able to &C., complish anything like what we desired in reaching the facts in the many cases in each county.
 ..The law under which I have acted al- lows only one dollar per day for ex- penses and this will not permit the state land agent 10 travel extensively and make personal investigations of the me- rits and demerts of the claims by which these trust lands are held. The corre- spondence of the office has been very heavy, as I have been forced to conduct the work cheaply by that method. The law gives the agent no powers of ap- praisement or sale, that. however, being granted to the local trustees under the direction of the county superintendents of education. In the matter of all school lands I have worked under the direction and with the approval of the state su- perintendent of education, through which department the monies derived from the sale of school lands are paid into the state treasury.
 Patents Issued.
 ''Snce I have been in office there has been issued 161 patents for the sixteenth section lands, covering 27,315 acres of land, for which S26. 69 has been paid into the treasury; this includes sales and patents issued under an adverse holding. There are a great many unsettled claims for sixteenth section lands yet pending, many of them reaching back for fifty or more years, and I would recommend that the law be so amended as to en- able the agent to reach these cases more rapidly than he has been able to do un- der the present law and with the means at his command. The schools of the state have lost very heavily by the ef- fects of the statute of limitations.
 tThe state has some valuable property in the school indemnity lands and these lands should be well protected. I have made a personal investigation of lot of these lands and have listed them and furnished the list to the department of education. which lists in turn were sent to the county superintendents of educa- . ton of the respective counties, in which said lands were located, for investiga- tion. and I am advised that in many cases parties are claiming these lands were certified to the state in the year 1888 school indemnity lands. The state has some lands known as internal im- provement lands and the attorney general advices me that there is no law at present by which these lands can be sold. would advise that this matter be con- sidered by the legislature and that a law be provided on the hbject."